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Commentary Oregon Daily Emerald Thursday, July 7, 2005 FURTWPW6LE*. Bret Furtwangler | Graphic artist NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 SHADRA BEESI.EY EDITOR IN CHIEF GABE BRADLEY NEWS EDITOR NICHOLAS WILBUR NEWS REPORTER SHAWN MILLER SPORTS EDITOR RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR AILEE SLATER COMMENTARY EDITOR T IM BOBOSKY PHOTO AND ONLINE EDITOR WENDY KIEFFER DESIGN EDITOR IENNY GERWICK COPY CHIEF BRIO FURTWANGLER GRAPHIC ARTIST BUSINESS (541)346-5511 IUDY RIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER ALEX CORBIN ALAN FULLERTON RYAN JOHNSON DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR MIA LEIDELMEYER SALES MANAGER KELLEE KAUFTHEIL STEPHEN MILLER KATIE STRINGER CODY WILSON SALES REPRESENTATIVES CLASSIFIED (541) 3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KORALYNN BASHAM KAIY GAGNON KER1 SPANGLER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541)3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER KIRA PARK PRODUCTION COORDINATOR The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub lished daily Monday through Fri day during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Ore gon, Eugene, Ore. The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. ■ in my opinion Why I’m becoming a Republican All right, that tears it — I’m becoming a Republican. It’s been a long time coming and I have a lot of reasons. The straw that broke the camel's back, however, was the Supreme Court vacancy announced last week. As I was getting ready to go to work Friday morning, a news anchor on tele vision said the president was about to address the nation. This struck me as particularly extraordinary because the president — a relatively close-lipped president — had just addressed the na tion on Tuesday evening. Oh my god, I thought, something ter rible has happened. The anchor’s choice of words did lit tle to ease my fears. He said the presi dent was going to speak about “the bombshell that came out of Washington, D.C. this morning.” Just as I was reaching for my duct tape, the anchor clarified that he was referring to a metaphorical boirib shell, not a literal bombshell. I breathed a sigh of relief as I reset my internal terror alert down a notch from, “We're all going to die!” to “We're all going to die ... eventually.” Then the anchor explained the situa tion. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor — of ten called the “swing vote” by my fellow denizens of Punditville — had an nounced her resignation. In that moment, I was overwhelming ly glad George Bush is our president be cause I knew he was going to appoint a strict constructionist to the vacancy. I believe in a constructionist approach to the Constitution. Sure, I believe in a living, breathing Constitution. But I also Relieve the living and breathing should done through elected legislatures mak ing decisions and passing Constitution al amendments rather than the courts applying the Constitution to situations it was never intended to address. Federal judges are not beholden to the will of the people because the fed eral judiciary is not supposed to be a political branch of government. It’s not about right or left, it’s about judicial philosophy. But right on cue, from stage left, enter the clowns who are now running around saying the sky is about to fall down if the president appoints “an ex treme right-winger.” Here come the GABE BRADLEY THE WRITING ON THE WALL Democrats, urging Bush to select a mod erate, or maybe even a liberal. More frustrating than the Democrats’ insistence on turning this into a partisan issue when it needn’t be is the underly ing misconception they have that leads them to believe their opinions matter worth a damn in this process. Republicans win elections so Repub licans get to pick judges. When Democ rats win elections, they get to pick judges. Until then, they might as well just shufup. George Bush’s reelection was the first time in almost two decades that a presi dent has been elected with a majority of the popular vote. Immediately after the election, the pundits tried to marginalize the victory. It was all Karl Rove’s master plan to mobilize the evangelical Christ ian vote, they said. George Bush didn’t really win — those backward rubes and Jesus people handed him the election out of ignorance. Contrary to the outrageously arrogant post-election statements by Michael Moore and others, 54 percent of the vot ers did not reelect President Bush be cause they were ill informed. Fifty-four percent of voters didn’t de cide that Geoige Bush was more sincere when he said, “God bless America.” Is it really so hard to accept that the elec torate saw a clear difference between the candidates and made a choice? Fifty-four percent of the voters decid ed that George Bush was the man they wanted leading our armed forces. Fifty four percent of voters decided that George Bush was the man they wanted to champion Social Security reform. And 54 percent of voters decided that George Bush was the man they wanted to select Supreme Court justices. Also, by giving a majority of Senate seats to Republicans, the voters further placed the role of picking judges into the hands of Republicans. But now the Democrats are yacking their heads off about what Bush should do because that’s all they can do — talk. They’ve been totally stripped of all power and responsibility in this process by the people of this country. It’s not like this was a surprise. In both 2000 and 2004, a big issue in the presi dential campaigns was the potentially imminent retirement or death of several Supreme Court justices. Even Cosmopolitan magazine was politically astute enough to be aware of this when they urged their readers to vote for John Kerry because George Bush would appoint justices who would systematically dismantle the Cosmo-girl way of life. I just hope Republican senators have the guts to support the president instead of trying to suck up to the me dia and try to build reputations as “maverick” Republicans. The voters didn't put the Maverick party in power. The voters didn't put the Moderate party in power. The voters put the Republican party in power. Every “maverick” Republican is trying to do a John McCain impression. They hope to gamer media support and atten tion by having the “courage” to cross party lines. Well there's only room for one John McCain. A far more viable political strat egy would be to faithfully represent the base that put you in power rather than trying to curry favors with the media. Besides, nobody trusts the media anyway. We don’t need to feel bad for win ning elections. The public had a chance to try things the Democrat way — they said, “No!” And putting up with obstructionism now so we can reserve the right to be obstruc tionists later is no way to govern. So I’m becoming a Republican be cause I’m done standing on the side lines. One party has a clear agenda that makes sense while the other par ty’s only course of business seems to be negativity and a nearly impotent attempt at obstructionism. I don't know if there's a secret hand shake I need to learn or a T-shirt I need to buy. But here I am, ready to do ... well, whatever it is we do, I guess. gabebradley@dailyememld.com ■ Editorial Bush's judge nomination should be a moderate By this fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will have a new member, to be nominated by President George W. Bush. The space of time between now and October is sure to be filled with much debate about which candi date can best fill the shoes of retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor— a scary thought for both liberals and conservatives concerned about the future of the United States. Supreme Court positions last a lifetime, and though justices are supposed to abide by a strict interpretation of the Constitu tion, no one doubts that present political situations and parties almost always have an impact on relevant court decisions. Al though President Bush’s nominee will be scrutinized by the Senate, Bush’s first nominee is basically guaranteed to land a spot on the Court. Luckily, the president has said that he will not choose a nominee based on the person’s views about any “hot-button” issue, such as abortion. Hopefully Bush does not plan to retract that statement. Agreeing to step away from sharply partisan political ques tions is important in creating a supreme court that can evaluate the constitution without too much influence from the politi cal viewpoints of either party. Thus far, President Bush also deserves praise for his consideration of Attorney Gen eral Alberto Gonzales as a nominee. Al though many fellow republicans have criti cized Gonzales for being too lenient on abortion and affirmative action, he is still one of Bush’s top choices. Even if Gonzales does not end up receiving the nomination, the President should remember his earlier (correct) convictions that pleasing a conser vative base is not as important as providing the Supreme Court with an appropriate, moderate justice. The implications of nominating a far right wing judge (as many agree Bush is likely to do) are enormous. If a very conservative justice is appointed to the Supreme Court, it is likely that Roe v. Wade will be over turned. O’Connor has historically acted as the swing vote when it comes to constitu tional issues about abortion; if O’Connor’s replacement denies that the fourth amend ment guarantees pregnant women the right to privacy, states (or a national government) can easily outlaw abortion. Young women of this generation have always enjoyed a world where their bod ies are protected from governmental deci sions, but without the precedent set by Roe v. Wade, that right would surely be under attack. President Bush might not be the first choice of many American citizens as the man whose nominee will influence this country for years to come. However, thus far, the President has acted admirably in ad mitting that moderation is the key. If they stick to that value, Bush and the Senate ought not to disappoint the nation by the time October rolls around. LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor arto guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to ietters@da0yemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office, EMU Suite 300. Electronic submissions are preferred. Letters are limited to 250words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Authors ar e limited to one submission per calendar month. Submissions should include phone number 3nd address for verification. The Emerald reserves the ri$tt to edit for space, @amm3f and style. Guest submissions are published at toe discretion of toe Emerald. _*-—
