Supreme Morons

I kept quiet over the HM supreme court nomination. I can't shut up about the latest nominee.

First of all, I, like the rest of the country, was appalled that Bush nominated a personal friend and someone completely unqualified for the supreme court. In a move that proves that in some ways the confirmation process works, her name was withdrawn prior to the start of hearings.

After the withdraw, I went to "smoking gun.com" to read her letter to the president withdrawing her name. They also have posted personal correspondence between Harriet and W. Her letters have her coming across like a starstruck teenager. Lots of exclamation points and cards with puppies on them. I think the basis of friendship is that she thinks he hung the moon and, like any spoiled child, surrounds himself with people who never tell him the truth about his limitations.

So, on to this latest clown. Again, I thought about keeping my fingers quiet on this political issue, since most of you can already guess my thoughts. But, a news item has me itching to voice an opinion. This guy voted to uphold a law requiring women to notify their husbands prior to getting an abortion. When experts and other justices on the Penn. Appellate court pointed out that only a few married women get abortions, and those who do not involve their husbands in the decision making process must have a pretty darn good reason --- he poo pooed the idea. He said that although there is concern for any woman who is a victim of violence, that such a small number would fall into the category created by the law that it wasn't worth rewriting the law.

I guess we should take from this that he still believes that men own their wives and their wives bodies and that sexual access regardless of consent is the right of any married man.

As The Chick once told me (back in her days of working with many many pregnant women) "Any unplanned pregnancy, regardless of marital status, is a crisis." Women who have more children than they can handle, women who are prevented by partners from using birth control, women who are victims of violence already have daily crises that make the prospect of enduring pregnancy and childbirth a danger. There is proof that pregnancy does not protect women from violent partners, quite the opposite. Many abuse victims say that the verbal and emotional abuse escalated to physical abuse during pregnancy.

Several years ago, I pointed out to The Phenom that the danger of a W presidency is that he would have an opportunity to completely change the make up of the supreme court, and that women's civil and personal rights would be compromised as a result. I believed a few weeks ago, and even more now, that Harriet Meirs' nomination was a gender based nomination -- that W knew she'd never make it to the court, but that he'd get credit for nominating a woman and would be free to nominate another male chauvinist pig to the court.