BCT Editorial – 1/8/06

This page was last updated on January 8, 2006.

Flip flop; Editorial; Beaver County Times; January 8, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The American Bar Association has given Judge Samuel Alito its highest rating - ‘well qualified.’

“This is the second time the Supreme Court nominee has received the top rating.

“He earned the same one when he was nominated to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1990 by President Bush’s father.

“What makes the rating of interest is that some conservatives and members of the Bush administration have trashed the ABA and its rating system, often with great vehemence, when the group gave judicial nominees a rating that was less than ‘well qualified.’

“The flip side applies to Democrats, who have used the ABA’s ratings to question nominees’ qualifications to sit on the federal bench.

“If you hear Alito supporters citing the ABA’s rating as proof that he is fit to sit on the Supreme Court or his foes running down its importance, just remember that flip-flopping in politics isn’t limited to Democratic presidential nominees.”

[RWC] Man the author is hard up to find a flip-flop on the part of conservatives or Republicans. If Alito supporters tout the rating, it will be more of sticking it in the face of Democrats than it will be flip-flopping. You don’t have to believe in a rating system to stick its results in the faces of those who do.