Obamacare: Supreme Court Battle

28 November 2011 |permalink | email article

An unprecedented phenomenon is about to take place relative to the Obama health care case before the Supreme Court. Republican lawmakers and conservative interest groups want Justice Elena Kagan off the case; Liberals and Democrats in Congress say Justice Clarence Thomas should step back. According to Huff Post Politics neither justice is budging—the right decision, according to many ethicists and legal experts. The stakes are very high in an election year. None of the parties in the case has asked justices to excuse themselves. But there’s little doubt in the underlying calls that Thomas is a clear vote to strike down President Obama’s health care law while Kagan is certain to uphold the main domestic achievement of the man who appointed her to the high bench. Both campaigns suggest some complaints are less about perceived conflicts than the outcome of the case.

Briefly Noted

New Hampshire’s largest and most influential newspaper, the Union Leader, endorsed Newt Gingrich for president on Sunday. What’s really relevant despite all the media hoopla is that only three times has UL’s editorial page endorsed Republicans who have gone on to win the party’s nomination: Ronald Reagan in 1976 and 1980, and John McCain in 2008…..The recent op-ed by veteran Democratic pollsters Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen suggest that Barack Obama should step down and open the door for Hillary Clinton to step up is pure “fantasy politics.” Obama’s campaign is within reach of raising a billion dollars’ war chest—an historic first—while Clinton has made it quite clear she’s not interested. 

L.A. Politic

Well informed sources say that Major League Baseball plans to size up potential bidders for the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise during the next six weeks. Bid books are likely to be distributed soon after Thanksgiving, with the first round of bidding planned for early January. Collected offers are expected to exceed more that $1 billion for the storied franchise. Look for the bidding to be rough and tumble.

California Politic

Haunted by regret for allowing two men to be executed more than a decade ago, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber now says it’ll never happen again on his watch. “I simply cannot participate again in something that I believe to be morally wrong.” He described the state’s death penalty as an extremely expensive life prison sentence. Jerry Brown’s father, admired two-term Gov. Pat Brown, was always ambivalent about the death penalty. Perhaps the former Jesuit and three-term governor should take another look.

Quotable

“I think what happened with Simpson-Bowles was an absolute tragedy. They work like a devil for 10 months…They compromise. They bring in people as far apart as Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to get them to sign on, and then they’re totally ignored. I think that’s a tragedy.—Warren Buffett on CNBC two weeks ago.

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