The bottom line for Rebecca Bradley; she has the temperament of a teenage "bad girl." It's obvious and embarrassing. Wisconsin's high court is already the laughing stock of the nation. But there's something else...
Even though the latest Kloppenburg-Bradley debate didn’t offer up
anything new, something did occur to me that I think got lost in all the rhetoric.
Rebecca Bradley has been attacking JoAnne Kloppenburg for being “liberal,” and warned that her presence on the court would result in left wing decisions. Aside from the
fact the court, with or without Bradley, would still be an activist
conservative one, Bradley then went on to inadvertently destroying her own argument.
In one instance, Bradley concedes her personal opinions are
important in this race:
"I'm not the type of person who ever wants to hurt someone," Bradley said. "I've gone through a process of change, I've grown up, I've grown as a person."
But when Kloppenburg questioned any evidence of that change, Bradley flipped it around and claimed it didn't matter:
"We're people. We have opinions on the issues of the day. Once we put the black robe on ... we put those opinions aside."
If that were true, that would have to include everyone, even Kloppenburg. But it didn't.
And if you want to make the argument that only conservatives can push their feelings aside, what would explain the claim by Republicans that the GAB had to be dismantled because even judges can't leave their political leanings behind? They basically said an all partisan elections board was no different than a group of former judges, pretending to be non-partisan.
Keep in mind that Kloppenburg isn’t the one with a history of
exclusion, or bashing individuals for their sexual preference and their choice for
president. Only Bradley has done that.
In one of the more bizarre media writings to date, Wisconsin State Journal columnist Chris Rickert somehow compared Bradley's homophobia, women invite rape, liberals voting for Bill Clinton are dumb, partisan Federalist Society membership, and birth control is murder documented statements to Kloppenburg's kind words for retiring union leader John Matthews:
Now that state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley has been outed as a reformed (she says) homophobe who leaves oral arguments early to speak before the state’s conservative business lobby ... Kloppenburg said she “couldn’t miss gathering with some of the best people in Wisconsin to honor the most amazing John Matthews.”
Ouch? Smooth Chris, that's the same? God it's fun watching these guys twist into pretzels trying to explain their vacuous unprincipled flip floppy positions.
Yes, it's amazing the mental contortions these people are having to put out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your observation, but I wish the Kloppenburg campaign would state more directly what this means. When voters want to vote for something, bland middle-of-the-road does not encourage voters, but discourages them.