Souter Retires; Specter Switches: What's the Connection???

(If Obama Even Names A REAL "Liberal," I'll Eat A Hat!!!

And if Specter's switch confers ANY benefit to the People's interests, I'll eat a fucking bug!)

The blogosphere is churning this week with the news of the impending retirement from the Supreme Court of Justice David Souter. Souter’s departure, expected once the current term ends in late June, would give President Barack Obama his first chance to nominate a justice. He is not now expected to remain on the bench until a successor is confirmed.

Meanwhile Arlen Specter, feeling pressure on his rightard flank for his expected run for re-election (even though he's 80 and shot through with cancer), announced he's switching his party affiliation--though not his loyalties, strangely--to the Dims.

Souter’s retirement is no more likely to change the "ideological balance" on the closely divided court-- because Obama is almost certain to replace the liberal-leaning justice with someone with similar views--than Specter's departure from the GOPuke fold will significantly alter the balance of power in the Senate. There is no evidence that I am aware of that the GOPukes can command 41 votes on a whim, if so ordered. Specter's defection only ADDS to the number of DINO/BleuDawg-Vichy Dims, which now numbers between 12 and 15 members (depending on the issue). That's 25-30% of the entire caucus. It actually gives them MORE power, especially since Al Franken's seating seems likely not to occur before the 2010 elections.

A story on ThinkProgress the other day itemizes the characteristics Obama would seem likely to nominate if he were (just this once) true to his campaign pledges:

Obama's Qualifications: Someone "Like" Souter, Believes In ‘Right To Privacy,’ Empathizes With The Powerless (Think Progress)

From his time in the Senate and statements during the Democratic primary, Obama appears committed to nominating someone who recognizes that the Constitution provides Americans with an inherent right to privacy, someone who can empathize with the “less powerful,” and perhaps someone who understands “what it means to be on the outside.”

Much speculation swirls over the identity of the next Justice: Will it be (another) woman? A latino (there's never been one); A latino woman (ditto)? A gay person (never been one of those, either, though Souter is 69-year-old "bachelor")? An atheist (none of those, so far, either, afaik)?

One thing I will guarantee (tho' obviously I have no power to effect it in any way): Whomsoever is selected, that person will NOT be a "libera," or a "progessive." And if the one selected IS a latino, that probably means another fucking mackerel-snapper (Roman Catholic) added to the FIVE (Aside: just HOW-the-FUCK did a secular, religiously diverse country get FIVE "practicing/devout" Catholics to sit on its highest Court?)

But religious preference aside, in ANY case, the sort of person "thePrez" apparently plans to nominate, therefore, is just EXACTLY the sort of person practically guaranteed to bring the fucktards of the Flying-Monkey right--secular and religious--to a full frothing boil, and make passage by the Senate no sure thing.

Which makes Specter's transmogrification all the more puzzling, especially due to a quirk in the Senate rules that requires one member of the minority to carry the nomination forward. Specter was the ranking member of the commmittee. His departure weakens the minority position by one vote, but the remaining members of the committee are, it seems, to me to be unlikely to do anything to assist the Obamanistas put anyone to the left of Ed Meese on the Court. With the departure of Specter, Hatch becomes ranking member. The rest of the Pukes--Grassely, Kyle, Sessions, graham, Cornyn and Coburn-- do not inspire confidence in the eventual outcome for ANYone not regarded as a safe, right-of-center pick.

Looking at these factors, I do not see where the Dims OR Obama (presuming their interests are not synonymous, as they evidently aren't) gain from the re-alignment, especially since apparently several quite significant accomodations were made to finalize the deal. There is no way, of course, that it didn't occur without the express consent and connivance of "thePrez" either.

The only explanation I can think of is that everybody in the political classes are jumping erratically to strings pulled by the county's owners sowing distrust among the proles for the whole political class, now as much for the Dims as for the Pukes hitherto.