Lobbyists

Walter Williams continues to be one of my very favorite writers. I hadn't thought of this aspect of why money works in Washington. The solution is now obvious to even me.

Sam's Club

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial … the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding. – Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1928

Ted Kennedy's questions at the Alito hearing were revealing at the least. "Are you going to back the little guy?" he asked. Like John Roberts, Alito did not see a difference between the little guy or the big guy. We are all equal under the law. The law does not require that we be equal in economics, status, education, or anything else. The government does not exist as an engine for social tinkering. It's only job is to provide for the common defense, and in its most limited sense promote common good.

I don't know Sam Alito, but his rulings and his press indicate a passing deference to the constitution which is all any of us can ask. So, how can 8 committee members, and presumably 45 Democrats vote against him? The reason must be that the Constitution and the rule of law means little to these people.

Brandeis gives the benefit of the doubt to those who would encroach our rights. I no longer hold that illusion for Kennedy and his cronies who are arguably men of zeal, but not necessarily well meaning.

As for Sam, count me as a member of his club (for now).

Wizer One-Liner #7

In order for us to believe that Bush misled us, as so many of our congressman want, we would also have to believe that they themselves are a bunch of uninvolved simpletons, seriously derelict in their own duty; and they should therefore be removed from office.