BUSTED! Roberts is LYING about His Federalist Society Membership
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Bob FertikWant to meet our members? Click 'Join' above!
When Bush nominated John Roberts last week, I was the first blogger to point out Roberts' membership in the Federalist Society. Clearly Karl Rove thought this might cause problems for Roberts in the Senate, so the White House tried to scrub Roberts from the Federalist Society secret membership rolls. But guess what - Roberts was busted by the Pentagon Post!
The Post obtained a copy of the Federalist Society Lawyers' Division Leadership Directory, 1997-1998. It lists Roberts, then a partner at the law firm Hogan & Hartson, as a member of the steering committee of the organization's Washington chapter and includes his firm's address and telephone number.
Yet even though Roberts was busted, he is still lying!!!
Yesterday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Roberts "has no recollection of being a member of the Federalist Society, or its steering committee." Roberts has acknowledged taking part in some Federalist Society activities, Perino said.
Roberts' name did not appear in the directory by accident - he had a formal role in the organization!!!
Federalist Society Executive Vice President Leonard A. Leo said that either he or another official of the organization recruited Roberts for the committee. Roberts's task was to serve "as a point of contact within the firm to let people know what is going on" with the organization. "It doesn't meet, it doesn't do a whole lot. The only thing we expect of them is to make sure people in the firm know about us," Leo said.
John Roberts is a bald-faced LIAR.
How on earth could the Senate even consider putting a LIAR on the Supreme Court???
Stop Roberts Now!!!
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Comments
If it quacks like a duck...
I don't expect that we'll be seeing an apology from Buckeye Bob anytime soon.
I also just heard on AAR that Roberts was listed in a 1990 Federalist Society leadership directory.
Federalist Society
I can't believe that our cowardly senators are probably going to let this one slide. A justice who belongs to the federalist society would be a great detriment to our cause. According to their website, they were "founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be." The bench is our only legislative body left and we can't afford to lose it!
Yawn...
I don't give a shit if they help little old ladies across the street. He seemed to think that it was necessary to hide it.
Now run along and troll somewhere else, smitty.
eminent domain
While we're on the subject, Clinton thought it was nessessary to hide lots of things and he would be passed through in a second. We need to get more justices who actually look at the constitution and don't legislate based on their feelings. I thought this would be more clear after the horrendous Kelo v. New London desision. With more liberals on the court, your home could be taken next.
Whoever sent this guy away,
Whoever sent this guy away, thank you...
Don't mention it.
Don't mention it.
That's one...
That's one...
Convenient memory loss?
Maybe, the boy next door just forgot that he ever belonged to the society. Maybe,he has some memory loss from early Alzheimer's. It couldn't be that he just doesn't want to admit belonging. No, he appears much too honest. Ha! A snake by any other name is still a snake no matter how much he smiles and he dresses his little boy in a pastel blue Buster Brown suit. Is this truth that hard to admit?
He learned that from his
He learned that from his days with Raygun, and the Iran/Contra hearings. We kept hearing the phrase, "I have no recollection of that..." over and over again from Raygun and GHWB.
It's almost as if, because he doesn't remember it, it didn't happen.
Sorry Mr. Roberts you can't
Sorry Mr. Roberts you can't have it both ways. Are you a brilliant legal mind or a forgetful less than ordinary man?
If you spoke as a representative for an organization, any organization and can't remember doing it and if you joined an organization and don't know that you are a member you just aren't bright enough for the most important court in the land.
Either you, sir, are a liar or a moron take your pick. Either way you are not Supreme Court material. NEXT!
Proud member of the reality based community.
How the hell does lying out
How the hell does lying out of the starting gate impugn one’s character as a Supreme Court Justice?
If they are seeking
If they are seeking employment in the BA, it's considered a plus.
M13
True!
Remind me again tomorrow.
Remind me again tomorrow.
Tah.
Tah.
Lots of wheels forget to pay dues/membership fees so
that they can claim...as Roberts has...I dont remember/I dont recall...I was never a member(legally).
This guy is a highly regarded attorney...he knows how to say 'IS.'
I'm not so sure I want a
I'm not so sure I want a Justice on the SCOTUS that can't remember if he is a member of a "club" that he gives regular speeches and attends parties of.
Maybe I'm asking too much. I already asked for a President that was smarter than me, and I didn't think I was setting the bar all that low with that one either.
Hmmm . . .
At my law school the Federalist society was a pretty benign organization. It was pretty much all of the conservative students. They organized talks by conservative politicians and legal scholars. There wasn't anything very "secretive" about it. My best friend in law school was its president. I think that as lawyers chime in on this you guys will find that being in the federalist society is a pretty small deal. BTW, I have no recollection whatsoever which clubs I belonged in law school.
We're not talking about a
We're not talking about a fraternity club. The guy was a member of the Steering Committee in 1998. He's not just going to their yearly golf outing for crying out loud.
The guy is showing the typical republican pathological inability to be straight on even the most simple issues.
If the guy won't come clean on something as simple as this, he can't be trusted, period.
But it IS . . .
. . . more like a fraternity club. There is nothing secret about it. Their goal is to be a sort of conservative alternative to the ABA. Being on the steering committee probably means forwarding emails about speaking engagements to the attorneys in your firm. Most conservative lawyers belong. It is really not a big deal. Conservative lawyers have a philosphical approach to the law that is represented by the FS. The FS organizes speaking engagements for these lawyers to attend. By attending one can fulfill continuing legal education requirements to keep your law license up to date. I am taking this line because lawyers will read all of this paranoid language and laugh at us!!!
Their membership list is
Their membership list is secret, and when neocons like John Ashcroft and Antonin Scalia are members, it IS a big deal. The FS was formed to combat Liberals (or so they say), and on this blog that is a very big deal.
The FS is not just a fraternal organization -- they have a hard-right neocon political agenda.
Not a big deal to you? Actually, your opinion is no big deal to us.
oy.
nanny nanny billy goat
The J. Crew mailing list is secret
Does that make it a "secret organization?" No. It means that all compilers of mailing lists keep these lists secret. This blog has a membership. Would you be upset if it made that list public? I would. Why? Because I like to keep my membership in organizations private.
Also, the Federalist Society is not "neocon." It is "originalist." Is that position offensive. Sure? Is it "neocon?" No. We have to at least sound like we know what's going on.
Hey Bill harding: you are not a nice guy.
If we're going to be silly,
If we're going to be silly, the NAMBLA membership list is secret also. Are you two secret members there too?
He ran from FS by lying.
He ran from FS by lying. Nobody is going to bet on him “forgetting”. He lied. I bet in time you will admit he ran from it rather than forgot. What I think you are doing is applying a VERY high standard of logical proof rather than using that which we all must use up until the point of a criminal trial.
Nice does not win a Nation.
Just to show you what a nice
Just to show you what a nice guy I really am, let me show you the door.
And just fyi, every member's profile on this blog is available for anyone to look at. That's the American way...
Bill, I love it when you're
Bill, I love it when you're all cuddly like that.
It's the new me...;-)
It's the new me...;-)
If you are Liberal what
If you are Liberal what makes you think you were made privy to their club's goings on? (Later edit: For instance, I have over heard -because I was assumed out of earshot- quite a lot of Gay, Black, and Jew bashing amoungst Republican Christians.)
It is not paranoid to expect a Supreme Court nominee to remember his “associations”. I’ll bet you, you would in fact remember your dealings with FS if you had been associated with it to the degree that Roberts was/is.
There is also nothing paranoid about holding this organization up to ridicule. Conservative principles are not self consistent and educated men should not bend over backwards to accept nonsense. People can of course be more or less traditional or not and all Americans should respect that.
Exactly...
Exactly! He wouldn't/couldn't have known if they were acting covertly--actually, he wouldn't have known what egregious activities they were engaging in in their not-secret, but held in private, meetings. Unless he was a member which would make him one of them, since no upstanding liberal minded/enlightened/caring person could sit (even without active participation) through one of their meetings without either becoming visibly physically ill or, at least, confronting their offensive agenda (heh, that could even be a sort of test of a person's character!).
Aside:
_______________________________________________
It seems to me that we (liberals/progressives/Democrats/political Left, by nature, would have difficulty being spies in that sense**--as we would have difficulty with the necessary lack of integrity.
**The sense of spying on fellow American citizens (ie. Republicans) for political purposes; in other words, it doesn't mean we couldn't be intelligence operatives, it would just mean that the circumstances would necessarily involve higher ideals--such as spying necessary to protect our people/nation (as in against potential terrorists or groups threatening our national security, seeking to harm our people, government or way of life). Oh dear... Considering the reality of just how subversive, revolutionist, and threatening Republicans/Neocons/Religious Right have become and their intention to harm the American people, destroy our constitutional democracy, devastate our economy/future, destroy our civil rights, damage our national security in the world and subvert our very way of life... it makes perfect sense, at this point in history, that engaging in disingenuous behavior such as spying against these elements of our fellow Americans... would now actually be sincerely justified. What has the world come to?
_______________________________________________
People can be more or less traditional, and we generally are, if anything, the most accepting of that. Indeed, "Progressive" by definition (of which there may be several), is rather less "traditional". To use a nice non-word, "Irregardless", we shouldn't have to respect it when confronted with a Supreme Court nominee who is less than forthcoming and appears to be prevaricating about his past. It begins to appear that he shares (at least) one of the most unethical, yet common personal qualities displayed by most members of his chosen political party... the quality of dishonesty/mendacity/deceitfulness or plain old lying. While it may vary in degree, it's an omnipresent trait (and probably a membership requirement for the Federalist Society).
Puh-leeze.
If it's not such a big deal, then why not be honest about it? I'll tell you why, because being a simple cardcarrying member may not require anyone to do anything more than chip in their $50, but to be a member of the leadership requires commitment.
Like Bill said, the Society was formed to combat liberalism, and that is the definition of being a partisan hack and endorsing "judicial activism". If you are really going to take the stance that he doesn't remember because "it's no big deal", then you just like him are not being honest.
Sorry leftdude, I mean no
Sorry leftdude, I mean no disrespect what so ever when I say you are not likely to be nominated to the Supreme Court but if you were and could not remember being a member of the Federalist Society ( which is much more than a college club) I would be opposed to your nomination too.
Proud member of the reality based community.
Another member in this 'harmless' frat crew is...
Richard Mellon Scaife.
You made me
You made me look... His list of affiliations is staggering:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Mellon_Scaife
And, in turn, you made me
And, in turn, you made me... look too (by your response and easily available link to get started).
Staggering... Indeed and egad, another filthy-rich radical republican coverty and overtly using his wealth/power to remake America in his likeness. A form of political speech, "free speech", the free-speech of money... Some people obviously get alot more "free" speech than others.
Where does this call come from? Is it something like "wealth corrupts, absolute wealth corrupts absolutely (sometimes)? Or is it that wealth just tends to corrupt the scions** (wanted to say scion--but it's singular, perhaps spawn would work better?) of the excessively-rich? Is it the nanny parenting in combination with such supreme "privilege" in their formative years? Do they just simply "not get it", referring to what life is like for the rest of us? Do they really think they're somehow inherently superior and deserve what they have while we're flawed and it's our own fault we didn't inherit great wealth? Or is it just a matter of common greed; the desire to increase their already vast wealth? All this is just asking why wealth is associated with Republican thinking (the components of immorality, lying, cheating, corruption, etc.).
While I suppose we can't really blame them for living in a different world--in a sense, they really do live in a different world. However, we can surely blame them when they use their power to make the remainder, the part of the world "we" share with them, worse for the rest of us. It seems proper to me, if only we actually had the political power we should have in our government, that we would find ways to use our government, our numbers, to protect us from the wealthy power-mad few (of course, that was the main reason our founders included an estate tax--to prevent the development of extremely wealthy/powerful family dynasties--an aristocracy or ruling class--which, in it's domination of our country would just be another form of oppression, something to be avoided.)(Even Bill Gates agrees we need an Estate Tax.)
More information on this guy:
Richard Scaife: Biography and Much More From Answers.com
The Dirt...
POLITICAL AMAZON: SCAIFE-O-RAMA!!
Seminal Article About...
Who's Afraid of Richard Mellon Scaife? (nutjob)
**scion (offspring, brood,
descendant, get, issue, progeniture, progeny, scion, spawn, posterity, breed, issue, brood, litter, seed, farrow, spat; family, grandchildren, heirs; great-grandchild) plural: scions.
Of course, on topic, methinks John Roberts wasn't exactly po'. Starting out in life as son of an executive (hmmm, another reference calls him a mere 'manager') at Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Lived in an affluent town, Long Beach, Indiana. Alas, he attended a small, all-male Catholic boarding school. How long did he attend? and was it because he "difficult" or did mommy and daddy just have better things to do than raise their child/ren(?)? Alas, the hazards of being born to even moderate privilege. Still, he was well off enough to attend Harvard, and either successful enough to or well enough 'connected' to clerk for a Supreme Court Justice (as in, could be he picked hiself up by his bootstraps, or he could have had alot of help).
Then again... Bush almost implied he was from a "working class" background (mentioning how he used to work summers in the steel mill--not mentioning that it was a pretty good paying 'perk' for management, allowing them to give these jobs to their kids). And if we know anything... we know that if Bush communicates it--it's a lie (I didn't even say "nearly always a lie" either). Bush lies--even when the truth is easier and more useful to him--it's like he's playing a personal/private/child's game (the game of 'can I get through 8 years as president without ever saying a single true thing to the so-called American people'!) with the American people.
If this smacks of class discrimination against the wealthy... it is because I believe we are facing a class war in this country and consequently class should indeed be a concern when considering lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court in the land.
Law school exhausted him
After law school graduation, according to Newsweek, Roberts had to be hospitalized for exhaustion. Most of us middleclass kids couldn't claim exhaustion after professional school. We had to join the work force to start paying student loans, to eat and have a roof over our heads, and to get health insurance. I guess that lacking the warmth of human kindness, this Repug had nothing to fall back on to energize him. The more that I read about this guy, the less that I like. I am sure with Hillary leading the way that he will be confirmed. However, woe to the majority of Americans who aren't conservatives and federalists. He looks like he was born without the caring gene. Our democratic rights are inconsequential when compared to those of the rich. This is now an oligarchy that judges you by the size of your bank account and portfolio, not by your commitment to your family, country, and humanity. We reward the mean-spirited, the greedy, and the powerful.
Ah the irony