A Little Empathy
May 29th, 2009 | Editorial Cartoons | 8 Comments
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I’ve grown increasingly tired of the fights over Supreme Court nominees. No matter who the current occupant of the White House names, you can be sure there will be strident objections from the opposing party. Too conservative, out of the mainstream, too liberal, a judicial activist, a sexist, a racist, etc., etc. Oh, sure, there are always unexpected nuances. Who ever thought that empathy would be regarded as such a negative trait. Do we really want our justices to feel nothing other than reverence for the text–bloodless automatons in service to nothing other than ferreting out the meaning of 200-plus year-old writing? But I digress. This is just a sideshow, the thing the opponents have glommed on to this go-round. It might have been anything, just whatever was necessary to drum up the proper level of contempt for the nominee.
I ran this idea past my good friend Scott Stantis, the cartoonist for the Birmingham News, and he took exception to the portrayal of the GOP as firmly against the nomination. He claims that the conservative blogosphere is relatively mild in its criticism, and that I’m unfairly demonizing the opposition–exactly what I’ve criticized conservative cartoonists for doing in the past. This is always a tough call. What I’ve heard is Newt Gingrich calling Sotomayor a racist for an offhand comment made in a speech years ago, others claiming that she’s a radical leftist and a judicial activist, Republican members of the Senate saying they had a duty to prevent the nomination of such a radical from coming to a vote (wasn’t it just a few years ago that we heard Republicans demanding that every nominee deserves an up or down vote on the floor of the Senate?). Perhaps Scott is right and he reads and hears things more nuanced than I do, but I decided to go with the cartoon anyway.
Besides, it’s fun to draw torture chambers, and it’s only a matter of time before even I have to give up blasting the previous administration for its policies.
Topics: empathy, GOP, Republicans, Sotomayor, Supreme Court, torture
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I don’t know what to think. Nice commentary, typical Stein ‘toon.
Stein almost makes it sound like he might be willing to consider a thought outside his typical liberal boundaries?
The ‘toon is the same old attempt at painting the elephants as evil-doers, which has become quite void & repetitive. Those who are only interested in political points rather than the interests of our country will continue to do so until we are completely segregated.
Then again, ignorance is bliss. Go ahead and publish something that paints the elephants as evil (gets attention) and divides the people even though the country faces much more pressing issues right now. After all, there is no way but the Stein way.
cheese, cheese, what a maroon! *rolleyes*
-Rusty
Cheese = chutzpah!
Rush and the boys spend hours and hours every day demonizing the current adiministration (and even moderate Repubs) and Ed divides the people with his cartoons????
I think I am going to throw up.
This is the first time I remember seeing your cartoons, but the one with the GOP elephants water-boarding the Supreme Court nominee just ‘cracked’ me up. I burst out laughing. Will start to follow your work. Thankyou
Yeah, picking up on empathy as being a negative for a Justice, and then starting up the all-options-are-open-including-filibuster rhetoric shows just exactly what the Republicans are made of: Politicians (with all the negative connotations that term implies). Not much different from the Dems, actually, but the ‘pubs have for decades now claimed moral high-ground and intellectual superiority, yet have been actually worse in the obviousness of their hypocrisy.
(Heck, that up-or-down vote was hypocritical even then, because during the Clinton years, the ‘pubs delayed Clinton’s judicial nominiations in committee, not even scheduling votes. Up and down vote, my arse!)
Personally, I think the Senate’s rules need to be modified, such that Federal judges pass if they can get a majority vote, but Supreme Court Justices require a 3/5ths-vote Yea. (Of course, I never thought that the Dems would get near 60 seats. But that’s what the ‘pubs get for the power they’ve had, in Congress and the Presidency, for the past 16 years. But then, that was payback for the Dems power previously. The ball keeps on bouncing… *sigh*)
-Rusty
Ed,
I give up! I’ve been trying for days to figure out what the bowl (of oatmeal?) in the lower left hand corner is all about. Please let me in on it.
jerry–I think it is an iron bowl with hot coals, in which is stuck what will be a hot poker. (One of the few tortures not yet identified as having been authorized by the five-times-deferred shirker of military service, and slanderer of US military personnel , the coward cheney.) But… give ‘em time. the list of un-American and dangerous-to-our troops evidence continues to mount. (Right along with the increase in the “George did it” kind of whining finger-pointing diversions calculated to avoid personal responsibility.)
Ah, thanks. I knew it had to be relevant – but didn’t see it, till your ID.
P.S. I once lived in Waco…. A long time ago….