The Derailment Campaign Gathers Steam
After a slow start, the fight over John Roberts' nomination for associate justice on the Supreme Court has heated up (or "hotted up," which they seem to say over in the UK). The past week or so has seen a good deal of attention focused on Roberts' wife, her participation in an anti-abortion organization, and her Catholicism. Now come the requests for documents.
Democrats seem to want the whole shooting match; Republicans want a managed release of information. These stances are entirely understandable from a political point of view, but I must confess that the Left's braying for every last shred of paper (witness John "You'll Get Them After the Campaign" Kerry's ironic demand) makes me uncomfortable. Take the issue of tax returns: I really don't see how these are relevant to Roberts' qualifications for the position. Perhaps he didn't adequately pay his nanny's Social Security taxes, perhaps he over-deducted his charitable contributions...but man, isn't this getting too personal? I imagine there's an interest to see whether Roberts made favorable rulings toward companies in which he had an investment interest, but this can be done away with through a schedule of investments, rather than determining how much he deducted for staples for his home office.
On the question of whether Roberts' records from his two stints at the White House should be released, I confess that I am of mixed mind. The argument against his Solicitor General documents being released makes a good deal of "common" sense to me: these represent what should have been, and what outside of the Executive branch would remain, protected by attorney-client privilege; and the idea that your confidential legal deliberations could be released to the public as soon as the completion of a President's term will surely chill debates. But I find the administration's invocation of the Presidential Records Act a bit confusing. There appears to be nothing in the statute to clearly exempt these documents from release, especially as more than the maximum 12 years have passed since the end of George H.W. Bush's administration. We'll have to see how this one plays out; but I have no doubt that what the opposition is after is not information, but dirt.
Democrats seem to want the whole shooting match; Republicans want a managed release of information. These stances are entirely understandable from a political point of view, but I must confess that the Left's braying for every last shred of paper (witness John "You'll Get Them After the Campaign" Kerry's ironic demand) makes me uncomfortable. Take the issue of tax returns: I really don't see how these are relevant to Roberts' qualifications for the position. Perhaps he didn't adequately pay his nanny's Social Security taxes, perhaps he over-deducted his charitable contributions...but man, isn't this getting too personal? I imagine there's an interest to see whether Roberts made favorable rulings toward companies in which he had an investment interest, but this can be done away with through a schedule of investments, rather than determining how much he deducted for staples for his home office.
On the question of whether Roberts' records from his two stints at the White House should be released, I confess that I am of mixed mind. The argument against his Solicitor General documents being released makes a good deal of "common" sense to me: these represent what should have been, and what outside of the Executive branch would remain, protected by attorney-client privilege; and the idea that your confidential legal deliberations could be released to the public as soon as the completion of a President's term will surely chill debates. But I find the administration's invocation of the Presidential Records Act a bit confusing. There appears to be nothing in the statute to clearly exempt these documents from release, especially as more than the maximum 12 years have passed since the end of George H.W. Bush's administration. We'll have to see how this one plays out; but I have no doubt that what the opposition is after is not information, but dirt.
posted by Jeff at 7:48 AM
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