Double Standard – Tapped disagrees

Double StandardTapped disagrees with Jeffrey Rosen’s plague-on-both-their-houses article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine on the judicial appointment mess. (Link via Howard Bashman.)

The Tapped view is that “the two sides are not equal” because from 1976 – 2000 Republican presidents have had “a concerted plan to pack the courts with youngish, extremely conservative judges,” but the Democrats have had “no such plan.” (I will avoid the temptation of replying, “Well, duh! Why would the Democrats want to pack the courts with youngish, extremely conservative judges?”)

“Clinton,” says Tapped, “was infamous for refusing to devote political capital to appointing liberal judges,” while the Republicans showed no such restraint at promoting conservatives. Studies by political scientists are cited.

Since my memory is not what it used to be, I would appreciate Tapped reminding me of all the anti-abortion, anti-racial preference judges Clinton and Carter appointed. What? Oh, that’s not what they mean by “liberal”? That must mean, then, that they do not regard judges as “extremely conservative” who are anti-abortion and anti-preferences. Mustn’t it?

Otherwise, Tapped would have to be arguing that appointing judges who oppose abortion and preferences is packing the courts with conservatives, but appointing judges who favor abortion and preferences is not packing the courts with liberals. And they couldn’t really mean that, could they?

Say What?