Thursday, October 06, 2005

In Buchanan post I failed to say something important

Yesterday morning I posted:
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Pat Buchanan: Anyone remember 2000?

Regarding White House Counsel Harriet Miers' SCOTUS nomination, Pat Buchanan says:

In a decision deeply disheartening to those who invested such hopes in him, Bush may have tossed away his and our last chance to roll back the social revolution imposed upon us by our judicial dictatorship since the days of Earl Warren.
Reading that paragraph you might almost forget that in 2000 Buchanan pushed ahead with his third-party presidential candidacy which he knew would cost then Governor Bush votes, and very possibly hand the election to then Vice President Gore.

Now he talks of "our" last chance.

Buchanan has never demonstrated much self-awareness.
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What I said in the post stands.

But I failed to deal with something very important.

In May, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren, on behalf of a unanimous U. S. Supreme Court wrote the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision declaring segregation in our public schools unconstitutional.

For decades afterwards, an awful lot of people who spoke of "judicial dictatorship since the days of Earl Warren," had Brown v. Topeka at the top of their "dictatorship" list. Many wanted to "Impeach Earl Warren." Some proclaimed: "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever"

Today, most critics of Chief Justice Warren and the court under his leadership agree that in Brown v. Topeka he wrote well, and for an America whose Constitution enables it to act judicially to right great wrongs.

Nowhere in Buchanan's op-ed did he qualify his statement about "judicial dictatorship since the days of Earl Warren" in any way, and I didn't call that to readers' attention.

I should have. I'm sorry I didn't.

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