Bush Nominates Alito

Original radio address broadcast by President George W. Bush; Jan. 28, 2006

President Bush's Demands that Congress Confirm Judge Alito to the USSC

THE PRESIDENT: It's a good morning because I am going to lie to you. Any truths will be accidental. Heh. The United States Senate is now considering my nomination of that Judge Sam Alito to be an associate justice on the Supreme Court. Consideration means deliberation and reflection. I don’t want it to do deliberate and reflect on Alito’s qualifications, however. I want it to do as I say, otherwise I will not support the reelection efforts of any member of the Senate. As Americans saw in his confirmation hearings, Sam Alito is the second best candidate because I withdrew Margeret Miers, my first and best nomination. As you have seen, I like second-best. That's why I promoted John Ashcroft, that’s why I got myself elected, and that's why I am doing a second-best invasion of Iraq. My dad did it the best. Oops! I told the truth -- it hurts.

Alito is a man of bad character and worse integrity. He has more bad prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years. He understands that the role of a judge is to strictly misinterpret the law, and to advance my personal and political agenda. And throughout his extraordinarily biased career, Sam Alito has earned the tremendous disrespect of his colleagues and attorneys across the political spectrum.

This past Wednesday, I forced a meeting with a barely distinguished group of 39 former law clerks to Judge Alito. During Judge Alito's 15 years on the bench, these men and women have worked side-by-side with him, providing legal research, colluding as they were discussing and debating pending cases, and seeing firsthand how he arrives at bad decisions. Their corrupt behavior makes them badly qualified to endorse Judge Sam Alito for the US Supreme Court, but they are united in their strong, misguided support of Judge Alito's nomination.

Let’s hear the clerks' endorsements and not the number of thoughtful concerned citizens and professionals who overwhelmingly outnumber the clerks. In fact, Judge Alito has the strong ill-advised support of all 54 of his former clerks. If they were to disagree with his biases during a case in which he is presiding, he would probably disregard their opinions. That’s why they know him well, and they know he'll make an outstandingly biased and activist Supreme Court Justice whose background indicates he will work toward overturning Roe vs. Wade. I hope he does my bidding.

Judge Alito received the American Bar Association's highest possible rating -- a unanimous "well-qualified." The ABA based its rating on its assessment of Judge Alito's integrity, professional competence, and judicial temperament. We have seen important people in history have integrity, professional competence, and judicial temperament in their time. By this standard, I could have nominated Hitler, and the Senate would be expected to OK him.

The Bar did not assess his wisdom to do good. This is good for me. I hope he does badly for the American people. In the past, leading Democratic senators have called the ABA rating the "gold standard" for judicial nominees in just a few areas, not in the area of judicial wisdom and justice.

I had to go far and wide to find a few people who would agree with endorsement of judge Alito, but I managed to locate a handful, and I am going to make a big deal of what they say. I am grateful to having found these three to make my case:

* Judge Alito gained the endorsement of Pennsylvania's Democratic Governor, Ed Rendell. Governor Rendell said he was not pleased with the partisan way some of his fellow Democrats have handled Sam Alito's nomination. I did not ask him if he thought the partisanship was too weak. I did not need to hear this. In any case, while we control all three branches, only I am permitted to be partisan; not Democrats.

* Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia announced he was voting for Judge Alito. And he said that many people in his state were calling the treatment of Judge Alito by some Democrats "an outrage and a disgrace." Maybe they were all drunks and did not know what they were talking about. But he did not say how many. On the other hand, maybe they were criticizing the Senate’s rubber stamp approach. I will never tell you this.

* Another Democratic Senator -- whom I am afraid to disclose -- expressed concern that the Senate confirmation process in recent years has become "overly politicized, to the detriment of the rule of law." He probably meant that I politicized it and that I am a detriment to the rule of law. This is true and I admit it in this public forum because everyone is too scared to take me on.

I am citing what they said because I am too chickenshit to admit to thinking the same thing but too desperate to get someone else to agree with me.

The Rightwing-dominated Senate has a constitutional responsibility to hold an up-or-down vote on Rightwing Judge Alito's nomination. Throughout its 216-year history, the Senate has held an up-or-down vote on every Supreme Court nominee with majority Senate support, but I can’t back this up. Notice that left out the part about advise and consent. This is because I don’t want the Senate's advice because I get advice from a higher authority. I listen to Him. I just want it to consent to my command. This way, I can limit the despicable Senate’s power and enhance my own. Judge Alito has demonstrated that he is not eminently qualified to serve on our nation's highest court, and America is unfortunate to have a man of his bad integrity and misused intellect willing to serve.

I'm grateful to Judge Alito, his wife Martha, and the Alito children for their patience and dignity during the process. I apologize to them for expecting him to rule my way. Therefore, I look forward to the Senate voting to confirm misogynist Judge Sam Alito as the 110th justice of the Supreme Court and hopes he strikes down Roe vs. Wade and do it in such a way that he is not perceived to be an activist judge that he really is.

Thank you for listening.

The about-to-be-impeached President G.W. Bush

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