Will They Learn to Love Mitt.... Or the Tale of the Activist Judges

So former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney squeaked through as victor of the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses held on Tuesday evening by a mere eight votes over conservative former U.S. senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.  Romney won 25 percent of the vote, with a total of around 30,000, an almost identical percentage and number of votes to what he received four years ago when he finished second to the eventual Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona.  Clearly, Republicans don't love Mitt, and the idea that he is the obviously ordained GOP nominee for President in 2012 took a severe hit.  A big hit for Mitt.  Hmmmm.  Now if he fails to win in New Hampshire in that primary to be held next Tuesday or else only wins by another squeaker, in the veritable backyard of Massachusetts where he served as the moderate leader of that state, I predict that his candidacy will be in real trouble.

Meanwhile, former 1990's Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich of Georgia, renowned for his showdowns with former President Bill Clinton, took a major hit from attack ads from the special interest PAC groups supporting Romney, and he is as mad as hell about it.  As Howard Beale (the late Australian-born actor Peter Finch) yelled in the 1976 movie Network written by Paddy Chayefsky, "I' m as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" 

The ironic thing is that when Gingrich was riding high in the polls a few weeks ago, before those attack ads hit him, he was railing against "activist judges" or, as conservatives like to put it, judges who "legislate from the bench."  They mean, of course, liberal judges who rule favorably for progressive causes.  But what could be more activist than the conservative court ruled by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts?  In fact, it was Roberts and his colleagues who ruled in favor of Citizens United in 2010 and made it possible for Super Pacs to operate without any oversight and without answering to the public, the very thing that torpedoed Newt's campaign in Iowa.  Newt might have to do another flip flop--on his thinking on the judiciary.  How about it, Newt?

I understand that at upcoming at the end of March, the Roberts Supreme Court has scheduled three whole days for the justices to contemplate President Obama's health care initiative.  Such a block of time to be taken by the justices to contemplate one legal matter. is almost unprecedented.  Of course, the Obama health care law is being challenged by conservatives all across the country so it was going to land up in the nation's highest court sooner or later.  Will Roberts and his conservative allies on the court be able to help the Republicans to dismantle national health care?  Serious questions have arisen, for example, over whether Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from the deliberations. Liberals point out that his wife Ginni Thomas’s ties to a group opposing the health care law.  Questions have also been raised by conservatives in regard to the possible participation in the discussions by former Solicitor General and now Justice Elena Kagan.  Her role as Solicitor General in litigation challenging health care reform legislation has been questioned, and right wingers say that as a result she should recuse herself from the upcoming deliberations. See http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/groups-suggest-elena-kagan-clarence-thomas-should-be-recused-from-health-law-decision/

Romney for President? 

Mitt Romney man doesn't excite anyone, Republicans or anyone else.  The man looks and sounds like a storefront mannequin.  His assertion that he has business experience and thus knows how to fix the economy is complete hogwash.  The best economic minds don't have a quick fix so Romney as a former corporate executive surely has no fix either.  This is the same man who several months ago declared that "Corporations are people too!" 

Activist judges?  How about instead, activist citizens to take our Democracy back?!!!

Elsewhere, I have written some thoughts about the prospects of Rick Santorum becoming the Republican nominee for President in 2012.  Go to my blog at Eratosphere at http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/blog.php?b=131

Also check out my Jack the Ripper blog for some discussion of "A Bit of Graffiti and a Few Letters." Go to http://blog.casebook.org/chrisgeorge/2012/01/04/a-bit-of-graffiti-and-a-few-letters/