"worked as lobbyist" (4.00 / 5)

I am as big an Obama supporter as anyone, but if he would listen to his own rhetoric and his own RULES this would not be a problem.  Damn.  

New Jersey politics at Blue Jersey.

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by: Hopeful in NJ @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 00:06:50 AM UTC

That would not be good (4.00 / 4)

I thought they had a general policy against putting lobbyists in the administration? Or is it okay if you had lobbied for evil corporate interests (Raytheon, Chamber of Commerce, etc)?

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by: existenz @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 00:07:45 AM UTC

Will the groupies now please open their eyes???? (0.00 / 0)

The US Chamber of Commerce has been against even the minimum wage. It's the historical enemy of the minimum wage, workplace and wage protections, food and product safety provisions and environmental protections.

Obama isn't being lead, he is the one in charge, and is selecting this latest appointee, but each and every corrupt one. We all were duped, and the time is now to wipe the dust from our eyes, stand up and fight against Obama, who IS a third term of the Bush administration.

No more denial, no more wishing and hoping. If we do not fight now, it's over, do you understand, it's over. What these appointees, with full approval of Obama will bring about will be the eradication of all our freedoms. Persecution and oppression of all of us, for the further profits of the corporate elites. The earth won't be saved, it will be reduced to commodities up for sale to the highest bidder. The time is now to join forces to demand investigations into Obama, and the democratic leadership.

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by: Mary @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 00:25:24 AM UTC

WTF? (4.00 / 2)

Hyperbole much?

Hate to break it to you, but elites have controlled America for hundreds or years now.

I think this is a poor choice, if he indeed is chosen, but Obama is in the middle of the Democratic Party.  Ain't no body to investigate him, even if someone were so inclined.  

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by: Tom Wells @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 00:29:46 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Tom, you're the one throwing the hyperbole (0.00 / 0)

Elites didn't always control America, please seek a de-programmer, because your soc 101 course has addled your brain.

He is chosen, and given Obama's record, that dupes like yourself chose to ignore, it should have been no surprise. But feel free to keep your head in the sand if it makes you happy.

There are plenty of ways to get Obama investigated and removed from office. If it means voting the dems out of the majority in the congress to do it, I will. That is how determined I am to not allow the further corruption of my party, and the destruction of the constitution and the lives of innocent Americans. It's time to clean house, and the senate too.

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by: Mary @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 00:35:09 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

can you point to a time when elites (0.00 / 0)

didn't control america.

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by: teral @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 00:54:53 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

now that is a bit silly (0.00 / 0)

This guy is getting in because he is a closely connected to Biden not because he is getting rid of the minimum wage or planning to persecute you.

New Jersey politics at Blue Jersey.

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by: Hopeful in NJ @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 00:43:45 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Hopeful, that guy is very bad for that position.. what don't you get? (0.00 / 0)

That lobbyist will have a lot of say in the direction of the court, and what cases are and are not heard. Lobbyists don't just stop being bad choices, he will provide an entre to his current and potentially future paymasters. Think for a change, instead of dribbling away like a senile fool

Biden is the senator who has been in bed with the banks and credit card companies. He pushed that horrible bankruptcy legislation that hurt people.

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by: Mary @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 00:49:27 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I think you're getting a bit out there. (0.00 / 0)

I'm about as harsh an Obama critic you're going to find, but if anything, Obama is turning into Clinton III. But Bush III? That's pretty absurd.

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by: Helzapoppin @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 01:45:12 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Lots of bad news today (4.00 / 4)

The idea that a Democrat would appoint a Chamber of Commerce lobbyist to be the government gatekeeper to the judicial system is so anathema to the basic tenets of Democratic politics, I'm simply not going to consider its ramifications until Obama makes this appointment.

That would be very bad news. This, courtesy of Glenn Greenwald, is even worse:

Obama fails his first test on civil liberties and accountability...

The Obama Administration today announced that it would keep the same position as the Bush Administration in the lawsuit Mohamed et al v Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.

A source inside of the Ninth U.S. District Court tells ABC News that a representative of the Justice Department stood up to say that its position hasn't changed, that new administration stands behind arguments that previous administration made, with no ambiguity at all. The DOJ lawyer said the entire subject matter remains a state secret.

No ambiguity at all. That pretty much covers it, I should think. Tell me again about Obama's secret jiujitsu, please....

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by: William Timberman @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 00:29:16 AM UTC

oh God (0.00 / 0)

cross linked over at EP.  Good investigative dig, not so good for I have that sinking feeling my worst fears are being realized.

NoSlaves.com  


The Economic Populist

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by: Robert Oak @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 01:05:50 AM UTC

At this point, all I really want to know (0.00 / 0)

is whether Obama's aware of his hypocrisy and lies, or if he's not just trying to fool us, but himself as well, with this endless "Listen to what I say, not what I do" crap?

Is he just taking us for fools, or perhaps just doesn't give a damn, or does he actually buy into his "I'm so cool I can do anything" shtick?

And revealing how he's playing the left and right against each other while focusing on the muddled middle, where his heart and soul appear to lie.

I.e. Clinton II.

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything...Mankind are forever destined to be the dupes of bold & cunning imposture" -- Alexander Hamilton

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by: kovie @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 01:37:49 AM UTC

The Chamber is our enemy on many issues (4.00 / 1)

The US Chamber of Commerce (unlike many local ones) is a right-wing outfit that works hard to eliminate judicial remedies for just about anything, e.g., it supports preemption of state laws that provide remedies, it wants to eliminate class actions, it wants to make employment cases difficult to pursue (it was on the opposite side of the Ledbetter bill that Obama signed), it wants to require mandatory arbitration of disputes based on fine print in sales docs or whatever, it wants to bar many tort remedies, and many others I'm sure I don't know of.  And it's a Republican auxiliary group (I received robocall support from the US Chamber for a Republican congressional candidate despite the Chamber's tax status forbiding partisan politics). And this Gitenstein has been promoting this right-wing garbage. It's appalling that Obama would consider appointing a guy like that to a position on legal policy.  Thanks for bringing this point to our attention.

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by: tyva @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 02:22:56 AM UTC

This will fall on death (0.00 / 0)

ears, but an attorney is a hired gun.  He or She is not their clients any more than a defense attorney is the same as the murderer who he or she defends.

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by: fladem @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 03:10:15 AM UTC

Disastrous from every perspective - We Can Stop This One!! (0.00 / 0)

As a lawyer who represented employees for many years, I can assure everyone who doesn't already know that this guy has worked for one of the most sleazy operations in the legal sphere for eight years.

The Chamber of Commerce has worked tirelessly to corrupt the process of electing judges in order to place business-friendly judges on the highest appellate courts of many states. The Chamber has actively recruited candidates, flooded the campaigns for popularly elected judgeships with record amounts of cash, and has achieved many successes in the last eight years. Every one of those successes was to the detriment of employees and consumers. I don't think that Chamber of Commerce judicial candidates are particularly friendly to regulations issued to protect the environment, either.

This trial balloon must be shot down with as much firepower as we can throw at it. This proposed nomination is inconsistent with at least the following principles espoused by Obama (and probably many more):

1) Not hiring lobbyists: This is the most fundamental and obvious. Also, there is no reason whatsoever to consider a waiver in this instance. There are dozens of potential candidates who are equally (probably better) qualified in terms of broad knowledge of the most controversial and partisan legal issues that are addressed by federal judges.

2) Making government work more for the common man, the average worker:  The Chamber of Commerce has elected state appellate judges who have not been friendly to employees.

3) Supporting policies that will help to level the playing field between business and labor, a forum that has tilted sharply in favor of business for almost 30 years - there is a lot of ground to make up, and having "business friendly" judges on the federal bench will make it even harder to move in the direction of a level playing field.

4) Support for the Lilly Ledbetter Act (and similar legislation on the civil and employment rights of individual workers): This nominee would not be inclined to clear any judges who will give a fair construction to that important legislation. After having 25 years of domination of the federal courts of appeals by Reagan-Bush conservative ideologues, it is critical that Obama's judicial appointments be targeted on professionals who are at least fair, and preferably liberal. It was the 5-4 conservative majority on the Court that construed the relevant statutes narrowly in the first place, and that narrow construction was what prompted Congress to enact the high-profile Ledbetter legislation!

5) Having a Supreme Court that is balanced on business issues. As numerous commentators noted at the end of the 2007-2008 Supreme Court term, the Court at the end of that term decided by a 5-4 vote a series of half a dozen or more cases that broke sharply in favor of business interests. These included one anti-trust (?) decision in which Chief Justice Roberts broke his promise to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he would respect stare decisis (i.e., the authority of prior decisions by the Supreme Court). As Justice Scalia noted in that case, Roberts voted to over rule a Supreme Court precedent of longstanding, without even admitting that he was voting to overrule it. Scalia was highly critical of Roberts' hypocrisy in that case.

  These 5-4 decisions ran the gamut from a bad decision on wetlands legislation (environment) to over-ruling the anti-trust case that business did not like. The four judges voting to uphold legislative regulation of businesses were Stevens, Souter, Ginsberg & Breyer. Any of these, but particularly the first three, may be replaced within Obama's first term. If Obama appoints Supreme Court judges that would be approved by the Chamber of Commerce, he will create a Court like the Supreme Court that gave FDR such fits throughout FDR's first term. He should be reversing the trend toward judges who are business-friendly, NOT reinforcing that trend!

6) Leading a Green Revolution in US policy on industry and the environment. The Chamber of Commerce has never seen a disputed environmental regulation that it didn't hate.

This is just an extremely rough draft of a real critique of this abysmal nominee. Perhaps a full diary entry later...

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by: hardheaded liberal @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 05:01:20 AM UTC

Obama's worst move yet (0.00 / 0)

If this winds up being true, this will be Obama's worst appointment yet.  Chamber of Commerce's No. 1 and No. 2 recommendations to the Supreme Court vacancy during the W Regime, from a list of about 200 potential candidates, were Roberts and Alito.

Phone lines and Inboxes at the White House need to start filling up over this one.  The Administration needs to know we are onto this one, and we need to make a big issue about it.

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by: gas28man @ Tue Feb 10, 2009 at 16:33:29 PM UTC