Monday, July 13, 2009 at 11:58 pm by Darryl
Day One of the Republican War on Empathy
I was working in my shop this afternoon when I heard Robert Siegel demolish Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) (listen to it, don’t read the summary). My reactions were identical to Kos diarist xaxnar’s.
The interview was another masterpiece from Mr. Siegel—on par with his surly Convention Center interview with a clueless Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, during the post-Katrina drowning of New Orleans.
The Grassley interview, along with several other stories in the evening news made me realize how deeply desperate the G.O.P. is. They are staking their entire opposition on a single word that Obama used: empathy. When Obama said he wanted a justice with the “quality of empathy”, the Wingdings, apparently heard it as he wanted a justice who ruled on empathy. He didn’t. And she doesn’t.
As is widely known now, President George H.W. Bush was a big believer in empathy in a Supreme Court nominee. In announcing his selection of Clarence Thomas, the elder Bush stated:
I have followed this man’s career for some time, and he has excelled in everything that he has attempted. He is a delightful and warm, intelligent person who has great empathy and a wonderful sense of humor.
Not only does Thomas fail the empathy litmus test of Today’s Republican Party™, but Sammy Alito fails as well, for saying (as Siegel put in Chucky baby’s face) during his confirmation hearing:
When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background, or because of religion or because of gender, and I do take that in to account.
What this all boils down to is that the Republican outrage over empathy is utter bullshit. It is faux outrage. It is make believe…just like the integrity of Today’s Republican Party™.
