JOHN ROBERTS LOVEFEST

 

NANCY GIBBS LOVES JOHN ROBERTS When I Read The Time Write Up on John Roberts, I Wasn’t Sure If It Was Written By His Wife or somebody who would like to be his steady girlfriend.   Nancy Gibbs out Bumillers The New York Time’s Elisabeth Bumiller for fawning adoration of her subject.

John Roberts, Legal Genius, Boy Wonder and . . . maybe we could talk his legal record somewhere in the first four paragraphs.  Or somewhere.  Roberts the good guy is so being sold and bought by an uncritical writer teeny bopped on the head.  Caveat emptor is preempted by cheerleading. Without irony, the Gibbs’ piece is titled Judging Mister Right. 

[TIME] To listen to people who have known him longest, what sets Roberts apart is not so much his individual virtues but how they marry: a great talker who listens well, a natural talent who works unnaturally hard, a regular guy who moonlights as a legal star. . . .

THE HERETIK LOOKS forward to Nancy Gibbs review of another Horatio Alger story. Or not.

[TIME] As the first nominee of the Internet age, Roberts will now be strip-searched by uncountable bloggers and interest groups even before the Senate starts confirmation hearings, probably in September. Between now and then, the great inquisitors, amateur and professional, will look at every person he has known, every penny he has spent, every word he has written and every clue he has dropped about where his interests lie. But for all the predictions of a nuclear winter once the choice was announced, the political climate so far has remained remarkably calm. President Bush, having held the decision close, could only savor the spectacle of paralyzed Democrats grasping for something to object to, liberal activists being forced by the sheer weight of Roberts' rectitude to say they would withhold judgment. . . . .

THE HERETIK NOTES as Gibbs says, John Roberts will be strip searched for everything about him. But it seems Gibbs herself got lost in the vision of Roberts stripping and not so much in the searching analysis.  Oh, the paralysis. Oh, the sheer weight of um Roberts’ rectitude.  Sheer weight of rectitude?  It gets worse. Or better, depending how you look at it.  Sorry. My rose colored glasses are getting fixed at the optometrist.  Hey, kids, let’s all go back to when the future was so bright I had to wear shades.

[TIME] Roberts' resume reads so perfectly that it is easy to find the little flakes of destiny littered through his storybook life. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., but raised in Long Beach, Ind., a small town sprung from the sand dunes on the southeastern edge of Lake Michigan, Roberts was in second grade when he won his first case. He had got in a fight with classmateTimmy, which climaxed with his hurling an orange at Timmy's head and splattering a classroom wall instead. Called to account in the principal's office, he argued that the classroom mess was "all Timmy's fault--if he hadn't ducked, the orange wouldn't have hit the wall." His longtime pal Richard Lazarus, now a law professor at Georgetown, laughs as he tells the story, which has become a piece of family legend. "What truly astounded the principal at the time," he says, "is that he actually had been persuaded it was Timmy's fault."

THE HERETIK SUGGESTS this piece could use little flakes of journalism. Somebody needs to find Timmy and see if he bought John a case of oranges so the fun could continue.

[TIME] Given the uncertainty, his manner and his habits of mind take on greater importance--and here there is an extraordinary consensus about his powers to win whatever argument he is in.

THE HERETIK SEES here there is no need to argue. No notes need to be taught to a fellow singer in the choir of praise.

[TIME] When Roberts spoke last week of the lump in his throat whenever he climbed the marble stairs, it rang true to anyone who had ever watched him in action.

THE HERETIK HAS NO FURTHER comment on Nancy Gibbs or lumps wherever they are or John Roberts or watching him in action. Time should have kept this one in the Double Secret Background file.

SOME THINGS NANCY GIBBS MISSED, BUT YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER

BIG PLAYER FOR THE RIGHT SIDE IN REAGAN ERA [WASHINGTON POST] Newly released documents show that John G. Roberts Jr. was a significant backstage player in the legal policy debates of the early Reagan administration, confidently debating older Justice Department officials and supplying them with arguments and information that they used to wage a bureaucratic struggle for the president's agenda.

Roberts presented a defense of bills in Congress that would have stripped the Supreme Court of jurisdiction over abortion, busing and school prayer cases; he argued for a narrow interpretation of Title IX, the landmark law that bars sex discrimination in intercollegiate athletic programs; and he even counseled his boss on how to tell the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow that the administration was cutting off federal funding for the Atlanta center that bears his name.


ROE IS NOT SO SETTLED AS YOU MIGHT THINK [AP] The legal right to abortion is settled for lower courts, but the Supreme Court ``is not obliged to follow'' the Roe v. Wade precedent, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday as the Senate prepared to consider John Roberts' appointment that would put a new vote on the high court. In an interview with The Associated Press, Gonzales said a justice does not have to follow a previous ruling ``if you believe it's wrong,'' a comment suggesting Roberts would not be bound by his past statement that the 1973 decision settled the issue.

THE HERETIK CONCLUDES This Nancy Gibbs Happy Daze Episode with the thought that while Nancy Gibbs may have concluded that John Roberts is really Mister Right for the Supreme Court, much information still needs to come out, if the White House will stop stonewalling. Until then we will be left with foregone conclusions including one found in Nancy Gibb’s puff piece where the good guy gets the girl and the job and we get nothing but more spun cotton candy.

PREVIOUS HERETIK POSTS ON JOHN ROBERTS
[JOHN ROBERTS IN THE HOUSE OF WAX ONE] [JOHN ROBERTS IN THE HOUSE OF WAX TWO] [WHO IS THIS GUY?] [OLDE HERETIK TIMES] [LEFTY LOUISE] [BUSH NAMES ROBERTS]

ADDTIONAL RECOMMENDED READING
[AMANDA MARCOTTE/PANDAGON]  Right on the tail of the controversy over John Roberts' claims that he doesn't recall whether or not he joined the Federalist Society, even though his name is on the leadership directory, questions have arisen about evidence that he has in the past associated with anti-choice activist and former executive for Feminists for Life Jane Roberts.Critics of the nominee contend that Roberts has had a close and influential relationship with Roberts over a period of many years. They cite evidence such as an apparent marriage certificate and the presence of children who appear to be jointly adopted by Roberts and Roberts.

 

Comments

[Mimus Pauly]

That cotton candy smells posteriorly bullish...

[eRobin]

My favorite line: Roberts' resume reads so perfectly that it is easy to find the little flakes of destiny littered through his storybook life.

Jeely Moses. Flakes of destiny???? Not only horrible writing but completely misleading since we shouldn't CARE about his storybook life and whether Gibss can read the tea leaves of his life. This is BushCo's go-to trick when discussing any nominee or employee. Now the corporate media is acting like a nominee's storybook life matters. We've turned the Supreme Court into American Idol - or Queen for a Day depending on the life in question.

[The Heretik]

eRobin, it does seem "the story" matters more than the subject of it. The total number of presumptions in the Time piece by Gibbs is simply astounding. You could go through it line by line and find sugar wrapped inside of honey encased in . . . Oy.

[Agitprop]

He's so dreamy. And did you know he worked in a steel mill?

So he gave legal advice to the Reagan administration, eh? I wonder if he had a hand in Iran Contra...

[The Heretik]

A lot of stuff in the Reagan Error could come out.

[Idyllopus]

No, no. I love it. Little flakes of destiny. Perfect(ly inspirational).

Little flakes of destiny.

Such a heady rush of perverse delight. I have more endorphins now dancing about my system than if I'd done a ten mile run.

Not that I've ever done a ten mile run.

[Pepper]

Reagan was dreamy, too ... and he looked like a president. Isn't that enough? Roberts just looks like a justice. He will fill out that robe so beautifully.

My mother, who is conservative, doesn't get why people think he's so hot. She said, "I think he's a stiff!"

[pissed off patricia]

Kind of OT but not a whole lot.... Imagine a guy as smart as Roberts having to sit and chit chat with a guy like bush. I would love to read Roberts mind when this is going on.

His wife's friends say they've never heard her curse. Okay, that's a woman that does not do us proud.

[carla]

People think Roberts is hot?

I'm so out of the loop. I thought he looked like a stiff assed mama's boy.

But then I go for edgier men. (shrug)

[Rob]

"Flakes of destiny" = "Dandruff of fate"?