Oh Really? Looking back-O’Connor said she isn’t sure high court should have taken the "2000" case

[kpete]

Looking back, O’Connor said, she isn’t sure the high court should have taken the case.

“It took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue,” O’Connor said during a talk with the Chicago Tribune’s Editorial Board on Friday. “Maybe the court should have said, ‘We’re not going to take it, goodbye.’”

The case, she said, “stirred up the public” and “gave the court a less-than perfect reputation.”

“Obviously the court did reach a decision and thought it had to reach a decision,” she said. “It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn’t done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day.”



more:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-retired-justice-oconnor-bush-v-gore-stirred-up-the-public-20130426,0,5874969.story

[jsr]

1. I can smell the sincerity

[Ikonoklast]

6. Politicians in black robes, we have no "court".

The Roberts Court will be the one history benchmarks as one of reasons for the downfall of Democracy in this nation.


And partisan hack Sandy is one of those that put Party before Law.

[Heather MC]

46. Can she please shut up about this!! Shoulda Woulda Coulda

ain't helping no one and neither is she.

[RainDog]

48. What you smell is the shit stain on the judiciary

That is O'Conner's legacy.

She and the rest of the Supreme Court 5 should have been impeached for their "one-time ruling" that was a coup d'etat.

They degraded the entire nation.

[enough]

2. "Still a big election issue"????? It was a fucking ELECTION.

She sounds simple-minded in this entire interview. It's sickening. Does she have any concept of the enormity of the consequences of that decision?

[magellan]

3. ...

[graham4anything]

4. They should have left it at 7 to 2 for Florida court to make final decision. Instead of the 4 to 5

Remember there were 2 rulings that night
7 to 2 back to Florida to decide.

but it was the 5 to 4 other ruling that said time ran out

[On the Road]

7. After the Florida Supreme Court Decision,

the Bush campaign filed Bush v Gore in federal court. Before being appealed to SCOTUS, the case went to a federal court in Atlanta wich ruled against Bush 9-0. The US Supreme Court could have simply declined to hear that case and let the ruling stand. That would indeed have been been the right course of action.

[pangaia]

13. Jeez, I had forgotten that thing about th 9-0.

[uponit7771]

59. +1, didn't know this...thought it went straight to USSC...

[reformist2]

5. Wow. Just, wow.

[City Lights]

8. "Less than perfect?"

Well, isn't she the optimist!

After that nefarious decision, the reputation of the USCC was in the shitter!

And, too late, Sandra. Your reputation will be forever tarnished by your decision!

[uponit7771]

58. +1

[spanone]

9. 'stirred up the public'?? WTF?

it installed a fucking PRESIDENT and shit on democracy.

[n2doc]

10. Sandy Baby, just fuck off

And I say that will all due respect.

[Brimley]

11. Meanwhile, the ghosts of Stalin and Hitler pause in their shoveling of coal in Hell

JOSEPH: "You know, maybe not everybody was plotting against me."
ADOLPH: "Yeah, and maybe those Jews, Roma, gays, etc weren't all bad."

SANDRA is a name that also has six letters, and she sure helped unleash a beast upon the planet!

[Solly Mack]

12. Words, words, words. So easy after-the-fact.

Fuck her.

[pangaia]

14. I THINK I remember hearing in 2000

that O'Connor said something about she woulds never let a Democrat be appointed president on her watch.
Am I just imagining that 'memory' or is there some truth to it?

[DavidDvorkin]

17. I hadn't heard that, but I did read

that she was at a party when Gore was announced as the winner of Florida, and she reacted with alarm and anger.

[kickysnana]

18. Her husband was failing and she wanted to retire then, but under a GOP President.

The Supremes had been wined, dined, flown around and courted for years grooming them for that moment. The media had already swung right.

She was shocked when people like me came out to protest her decision after the (s)election. She was in Minneapolis addressing a National meeting of Women Lawyers.

[pangaia]

30. Thanks..

I knew somehow it smelled bad.

And the METS lost again. :&gt (

[NV Whino]

15. Duh.

[KharmaTrain]

16. She Would Have Been Steamrolled...

...the fix was in, Fat Tony was going to overrule a state election no matter what O'Connor thought or not. All she was thinking at that time was her exit and having a rushpublican appoint her replacement. Yet more revisionist history...seems to be in season these days...

[truebluegreen]

19. Well. That's a real change of heart from her.

Although I notice she doesn't say she screwed it up. Although she did.

And of course they all knew they were screwing up at the time, or they wouldn't have specifically stated that the Bush V Gore decision was NOT TO BE USED as a precedent in other cases.

In short, they just wanted to install Dumbya, nothing more or less.

She destroyed her own legacy with one vote. And then she retired so Boooosch could appoint her replacement. Look how well that turned out.

[senseandsensibility]

20. I'm sorry, but that takes a lot of nerve. I really disliked her and her

airy, above it all attitude when she was interviewed by Rachel recently. However, she didn't say anything that irritating during the Rachel interview. Wow. The simplistic nature of her comments is a real eye opener, too.

[jwirr]

21. And they were supposed to be the best legal minds in the country. Problem at the end of the day. No

kidding.

[GeorgeGist]

22. It's called treason.

[CrispyQ]

23. She says, two wars & a global financial meltdown, later.

Wish we had a 'flip the bird' smiley, cuz it would be totally appropriate here.

[Carolina]

24. Can I it, please let me say it?

BITCH!

Sandy, taking the case was one thing, but the decision YOU made was another. And the excuse given for it and the fact that unlike other SCOTUS decisions, it was a one time measure rather than precedent setting. You knew what you were doing because you and your other partners in crime wouldn't even sign it! Fuck you; and may you one day rot in hell... perhaps with Reagan.

[UTUSN]

25. What a lying sack shit she is, her vote was never undecided. On Election night when the results

were being reported as swinging back and forth, she was in a buffet line and, when GORE was called the winner, she exclaimed, "This is (horrible, terrible, whichever)!1"

She can't repair what history will say about her, and there's a lot to say starting with her being a REHNQUIST crony in suppressing/intimidating minority voting.

Once a prairie oyster eater, always...

[Politicalboi]

26. "The Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day.”

The Supreme Idiots were the problem, you asshole. Florida should have been disqualified for all the fuck ups it had, and the Bush cronies controlling the rules of the count.

[Zoeisright]

27. Fuck you, O'Connor.

You are directly responsible for the economic crash and Iraq. Fuck you to hell.

[forestpath]

28. +1000

[rurallib]

29. Well, I bet she feels better

the rest of the country is fucked, but Sandy got all she wanted and probably now feels her conscience is clear.

[olddots]

31. Sandy when you're done you're done.

[DonCoquixote]

32. Few things make Tragedy and Comedy

Like a vile old sinner trying to buy or lie their way out of a well deserved damnation.

[Baitball Blogger]

33. Nothing has changed in Florida since that decision.

The method of counting ballots still is different from one county to the next.

[aquart]

34. She is still going to burn in Hell for that decision.

Especially since she's still pretending she had nothing to do with it.

[Granny M]

35. Yeah. Thanks.

We should have thrown the 5 of you out on your asses.

[surrealAmerican]

43. Aint that the truth!

... if only we could have...

[Samantha]

36. I said that from the very beginning

Last edited Sun Apr 28, 2013, 07:04 PM - Edit history (1)

USSC had zero constitutional authority to review the Florida's Supreme Court decision. The Constitution clearly delegates the authority to decide how Presidential elections are to be conducted to the states, provided of course all of the rules are fully laid out in the states' constitutions prior to the date of the election. Clearly, Florida had done this. It even revised those rules two years before Election 2000 as a result of a lawsuit that overturned a mayoral race, ejecting the politician who had been declared the winner and giving the job to the person who had filed the suit.

That embarrassment was the reason the Protest/Contest provisions were inserted into the State Constitution, to preclude mistakes such as that one from happening again. And those were the clauses in the constitution Al Gore cited with each move he made. Although many said at that time Gore's biggest mistake was not requesting a statewide recount, there was zero provision for that in the Constitution. The only way that could have been achieved was by permission of the Governor (and we all remember who that was) or by court order. The court order did eventually emerge from the highest court in that State, and that exact order was the one shut down by the USSC. That was an unconstitutional move on its part.

In the meantime, the Republican party quoted obsolete parts of the constitution that had been thrown out and loudly and chronically accused Gore of attempting to steal the election. It was a debacle of the worst type, and no one in authority challenged the erroneous statements coming out of that state in defense of the Bush* goal of "taking" the election. One of the attorneys who was a constitutional lawyer who left Washington to go to Florida to assist the Bush campaign on a pro bono basis during that time remained invisible and silent to the general public when unconstitutional threats were issued such as that by the Republican Florida legislature. Remember that threat? Even if a recount proved Gore had in fact won the popular vote, the legislature would still select a Republican slate of electors to send to the Electoral College. That move in particular would not only have been unconstitutional, it would have given the Electoral College the opportunity to disregard that slate since it had been chosen in violation of the guidelines outlined in its own state constitution.

The attorney assisting the Bush campaign in Florida from DC was none other than John Roberts, now the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Puts a whole new focus on that trite political phrase, "To the victor belongs the spoils", doesn't it?

To this day, I cannot believe the Republican party actually got away with this. And here we are 13 years later, dealing with the devastating consequences of a Bush* presidency with no indicators of when that influence will eventually evaporate. A part of the Bush* legacy never will dissipate as permanent scars on people and places impacted by his "Presidential" decisions are clearly visible this day and will remain for decades to come.

Sam

[heaven05]

37. IF

there is a hell, I hope there is a spiritual balancing of the scales. A lot of national leaders and 'deciders' in the last 13 years, Supreme or otherwise, should end up there. I REALLY hope a place like that is painful among other horrors.

[joanbarnes]

38. Regrets?

[gateley]

39. The world thanks you for George Bush, Ms. O'Connor. I hope you're wallowing in guilt.

[Gravitycollapse]

40. O'Connor can kiss my ass.

[The Wizard]

41. too little too late

She was part of the Bush cartel that transformed the Supreme Court into the Mediocre Court. The country has been in a state of depression ever since. Dante has a special place for the felonious five.

[elleng]

42. Glad to see she's willing to state her concerns publicly.

[blkmusclmachine]

44. O brother..

[kentuck]

45. We are still paying for that decision..

in many different ways.

[Hekate]

47. Hmmm. I, for one, am glad to see a crack in that facade

This is the first time -- ever -- that I have heard her express any uncertainty about that decision. It means it haunts her.

It should haunt someone who voted for that abomination.

[davidn3600]

49. Do we have a confirmed study that shows Gore would have won the recount?

We are assuming that if the Supreme Court allowed the recount to go forward, that Gore would have certainly won.

From the things I have read, god only knows how a state-wide manual recount would have ended. It may very well could have resulted in Bush still in the lead.

I think what did throw the election, was the butterfly ballot in Palm Beach county. Gore lost perhaps thousands of votes because people were too confused over the ballot design. Many people intending to vote for Gore unknowingly voted for Pat Buchanan. Fix that problem and take Nader out of the election, and Gore easily wins Florida.

Gore could have also had a chance to win I think had he recounted the entire state right from the start instead of only cherry-picking Democrat-rich counties. Just because you had a lot of democrat votes in one county does not mean that is the only place errors occurred. If the GOP-rich countries lost 100 Gore votes here and a 100 Gore votes there...that would add up. He should have recounted the whole state. If in the end of counting every vote, Bush ends up winning, so be it. At least we would know the truth.

[HughBeaumont]

50. "Mrs 5-4"

May the legacy of rotten follow you to your grave. After all, a grave was all your decision relegated to thousands of American soldiers, American citizens on 9/11 and most shamefully, the innocent lives taken in your dry drunk's folly wars of choice, which we'll be paying for the rest of our lives.

Hope you can sleep well at night . . . . Mrs. 5-4.

[Mickju]

51. She should be in prison for that vote.

[factsarenotfair]

52. The ONLY thing that comforts me about Bush v. Gore is that Lieberman

did not become V.P. At the time, I thought he was fine, but my opinion has since changed.

[KansDem]

53. Wow! What insight!

And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day.

"Probably?" How about "conclusively?"

(if ever there was a need for the "finger" smiley)

[ljm2002]

54. I remember at the time...

...the news media sold it as "if the Florida results are not decided by X date, they'll miss the safe harbor date". Apparently after the safe harbor date, there is some different provision in our Constitution for naming the electors.

Of course what they failed to mention, is that the provision for what to do after the safe harbor date is all part of the election process, as laid out in the Constitution. We were told that to miss the safe harbor date would be a Constitutional crisis; but somehow, having the Supreme Court decide a state's election was not a Constitutional crisis -- even though the latter was never spelled out in the Constitution.

[JPZenger]

55. They should have taken jurisdiction earlier, but set rules for the recount

It was an important enough issue that the US Supreme Ct. should have taken jurisdiction earlier. However, instead of picking the President, they should have set clear consistent rules for a statewide recount. If that had been done, by every standard, Gore would have become President.

[zipplewrath]

56. major Face Palm

No effing kidding ya dumb schumck. It was so obviously NOT a Supreme Court issue AT ALL. The constitution CLEARLY stated how these kinds of disputes were to be handled, and the SC isn't mentioned AT ALL. If the federal government had an issue with the results of the Florida Election, CONGRESS was to have handled it.

NOW the stupid broad gets a clue.

[hatrack]

57. Wow, and it only took 12.5 years for "regret" to set in!

Good thing she wasn't so hesitant back in November, 2001, huh?

[Blue Owl]

60. May Sandra's Day O'Reckoning come soon