Zach Wamp has garnered many high-profile endorsements during this never-ending campaign for governor. However, I was wondering if their impact would only be limited to fundraising. With this new ad, which was released tonight, it is apparent that their impact is more far-reaching.
It's a good ad. I am more a fan of the ad involving the 20/20 plan and jobs creation because of the substance, but this will connect with more people.
My State Senator, Jamie Woodson, issued an endorsement for 3rd Congressional District candidate Robin Smith today.
The Ron Paul crowd, which has created the absurd notion of Robin is not conservative because she was not created in the image of Ron Paul, will probably not support Jamie from now on, which means that she will garner less than one percent of her vote total in the next election than she did in the last election.
I have watched a good deal of the Senate Judiciary confirmation hearings on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Those who see me daily in courtrooms across East Tennessee know that my ego - which everyone (correctly) says that I have in political settings - isn't nearly as strong in court. This probably leads back to my never wanting to practice law. In any case, I always give great deference to those whom I believe to be the intellectual heavyweights of the courthouse. Besides all of the judges (and because I am in demand, I wouldn't practice in front of judges that I didn't respect on all accounts), I take a backseat to lawyers like Joe Costner, Public Defender Mack Garner, Jim Hickman, Jeff Stern, and others. I don't consider myself to be in the same class as these guys. Do I work hard and get positive results? Sure. Do I oftentimes get results that some attorneys may not have achieved? I suppose so. But I don't consider myself to be one of the philosopher kings that sometimes appear in our East Tennessee courts.
Which leads me back to my viewing of the confirmation hearings today. In no way is Elena Kagan an intellectual heavyweight. Far from it. She doesn't deserve to carry Mack Garner's briefcase.
To my amazement, if Elena Kagan is confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States, I am confident in stating that I am more qualified and more intellectually prepared for the job than a sitting U.S. Supreme Court justice. I suppose I should send a "thank you" note to President Obama for boosting my confidence.
There are a few great young scholars that have come out of Harvard Law (like Austin Bramwell). Among them is Ben Shapiro, who Ann Coulter pushed as a Supreme Court nominee when President Bush was looking to fill a vacancy on the Court.
Ben is in a unique situation because he has some experience with Elena Kagen, the ghost-like vapor with no real qualifications that President Obama has nominated to the Supreme Court. And, to listen to Ben and his tale of Kagen's blundering in Harvard's erroneous stand against the United States Military, what we do know should lead us to believe that Kagen has no place on the Supreme Court.
Now, Kagen told the Senate Judiciary Committee that she would be a model of impartiality and would act with deference to Congress. Of course, her lies before the Senate are as meaningless as Obama's campaign promises. Don't believe me? Obama's first SCOTUS nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, stated at her confirmation hearing that she saw situations where the individual right to bear arms existed. This was contrary to her prior opinions (as stated by Cato Institute Fellow David Kopel in his report to the Senate Judiciary Committee) and, today, to her vote with the minority in today's decision in McDonald v. Chicago.
It's interesting that the Right sees the problems with Kagen, just as they did with Harriet Miers. Yet, the Left - those who supposedly think for themselves and question authority - seem to march in lockstep with Obama's edict that Kagen is deserving of a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. They figure that if she's good enough for Obama, then she's good enough for them. Of course, if they keep putting forth intellectual lightweights as SCOTUS nominees, we will all suffer when the unfortunate day comes when Sotomayor or Kagen authors an opinion that actually manipulates a fundamental right.
It's interesting reading, for sure. The whole Kagen discussion probably amounts to nothing, because Senate Republicans don't have the cojones to band together and keep the unqualified nominee off of the bench. It doesn't make her more qualified, however, and we all need to realize that sooner rather than later.
My absence from blogging has not been the result of a conscience decision. I simply have not had the time for it. With the rise of Facebook, the little time that I do have is usually spent over there.
The primary drain on my time is work. Every week has seen me at the office for numerous all-nighters, sometimes spending over 110 hours per week working for Tennessee's children and indigent adults. It's trying work, and I'm admittedly not sure how much longer I can keep up this pace. Every year I say that I am going to work less than the previous year, and every year I end up letting myself down.
My boys have also been a welcome drain on my time. Leo amazes me every day with what he says, what he has learned, and how he is so much like his Daddy. Wil continues to grow; the days where we weren't sure he was going to make it seem like a distant dream. Angela is afraid that they both are "Daddy's boys," and she is probably right.
I am not abandoning this blog. I have a few points that need to be made over the time leading up to the elections this year, and this remains the best medium to do so. If anyone is still reading this blog (and I wouldn't blame anyone for having left with my unexplained absence), then you should have a few posts to look forward to as we go through the remainder of 2010.