Antonin Scalia, the hardest of hardcore corporate ideologues on the Supreme Court, is nothing if not cocksure that every cock-a-doodle-doo coming out of his head is absolutely correct.
In a recent CNN interview, the lifelong resident of Laissez Fairyland unleashed a torrent of logically perverse and factually wrong statements. Without blushing, for example, Scalia declared that, “the court is not at all a political institution.” Perhaps he doesn’t recall his participation in assorted, openly partisan events with Republican officials and such billionaire politicos as the Koch brothers.
Also, asked directly about Bush v. Gore – the most political decision in court history – Scalia blurted out: “Get over it!” Uh, no sir. That 2000 case was a court coup, led by you, to usurp the people’s vote and autocratically install corporate candidate George W. Bush as president. Yet, Scalia blamed Gore for bringing the case into federal court, apparently forgetting that, in fact, Bush was the one who ran to the federal courthouse.
Still, “no regrets,” Scalia said, asserting that a subsequent press survey showed that Bush would’ve won even if the court had allowed a statewide recount. Uh, no again, sir. The survey actually showed that Gore would’ve come out ahead.
And what about the court’s grossly political Citizens United edict, declaring that – hocus pocus – corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited sums of their corporate cash to buy our elections? Turning completely screwy, Scalia blathered that “Thomas Jefferson would have said the more speech the better.” Excuse me, but no – certainly not for “moneyed corporations,” which he warned, should have no role in our elections.
Whether he’s ignorant, forgetful, or just a supreme liar, Scalia is not fit to be on our Supreme Court.
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This article appears in August 17 • 2012.