If you have any doubt that there will be a full-court press on finding out Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ position on abortion at Senate confirmation hearings consider these doubts erased by this:
WASHINGTON (AP) – Just over half of all Americans – and a solid majority of women – want to know John Roberts’ position on abortion before the Senate votes on whether to elevate him to the Supreme Court.
Most people don’t yet know enough about Roberts to form an opinion on him, but among those who do, most view him favorably, an AP-Ipsos poll also found.
In other words, it’s going to be hard for him to remain an enigma on this issue. The votes may be there to get him through if he issues a vague statement or two, but if there’s no answer you may see Democrats harderning their position:
Abortion is sure to come up at his Senate confirmation hearings, and the survey found 52 percent believe he should give his position on the matter before lawmakers vote on him, while 42 percent said he should not. Women were more inclined to want to know his position – 60 percent – while only 43 percent of men felt similarly.
“It’s such an important thing, abortion is a woman’s right,” said Denise Connett of Bakersfield, Calif. “What she does with her body is her right and nobody has the right to take that away from her.”
Dolores Runyea, a semiretired resident of Kalispell, Mont., said she wants to know Roberts’ stance because she opposes abortion.
“It would be very important to me for him to state his position on abortion,” Runyea said. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s killing a baby. People who are going to be in those positions should be very forthright.”
And note THIS recipe for polarization, just waiting to be taken in hand, prepared and cooked:
Most Democrats, 60 percent, were interested in hearing Roberts’ position on abortion, while a majority of Republicans, 54 percent, said he should not have to disclose his views.
So why don’t Republicans feel he needs to disclose his views?
FOOTNOTE TO RALPH NADER: Don’t you think there is a teeny-weenie difference between these parties after all?
FOOTNOTE II: I see that I’m being labelled a “liberal” and am getting the weekly “you’re not a moderate” because of this post. We raise questions about lots of things on the right and on the left. Last week we got an email accusing us of being in the GOP echo chamber on one post.
There are LOTS of questions Roberts or ANY Supreme Court justice of ANY party needs to answer.
And independent voters and independent thinkers of both parties who aren’t in trenches as soon as someone is named trying to immediately defeat them or shove them through have a RIGHT to ask for answers to LOT of questions.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.