Fast forward to now. Within a day of Sandra Day O’Connor’s resignation from the high court, there was Kennedy on the tube, lost in some time warp. I could scarcely believe my ears as he again began his diatribe about “Bork’s America.” Some 18 years after the seedy senator’s deadly venom caused the constitutional process to convulse into a circus freak show, he was still ranting about his neurotic nightmare.
A quick check of the liberal activist Web sites reveals that, once again, the forces have assembled with the sole mission of dooming any nominee that doesn’t support their political agenda. The phrases they are all using are eerily similar to each other and to Teddy’s mantra: “We will oppose any nominee who doesn’t support individual rights” -- “individual rights” or “privacy,” of course, serving as code for abortion on demand, homosexual special privileges, etc.
The point of my not-so-pleasant stroll down memory lane is to remind us that history often repeats itself. If President Bush has the courage to nominate a conservative, qualified jurist who will uphold the Constitution as written rather than creating rights out of thin air, we can expect a long, bloody, orchestrated all-out war by the opposition. Nevertheless, the president must be true to his campaign promise to do just that.
There’s another, equally bloody nomination and confirmation story that, miraculously, has a bright ending, which should give the president hope. The 1991 nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court saw this remarkable human being become a victor as he rose above the crude attacks and eventually took his seat on the high court. Clarence Thomas, thank God, survived what he called the “high-tech lynching” with which Kennedy and his fellow travelers attempted to silence him.
Mr. President, we need more nominations like Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. Your opponents will go on the warpath regardless, so you might as well nominate a highly principled conservative who will be worth the fight -- and the sweltering heat of what promises to be another scorching showdown.