Chuckie Watch 76: Chuckie leads the way

I was just pulling some stuff together on the crackpot-ization of the Republican Party.  What better way to get into the subject than by consulting that imminent Republican Values political theorist, Chuckie?

People have asked me why I bother to track ole Chuckie's political tirades.  Well, it's starting to look like Chuckie isn't just a self-stereotyped Southern white-guy Republican Values blowhard.  He's starting to look like a leading indicator for the Grand Old Party.

Lately, Chuckie's been worrying about Tyrants in Black Robes  (11/26/04) and the United Nations (12/03/04).  The first is about the dangers of judicial tyranny.

What, you say?  Chuckie is expressing belated outrage over the Scalia Five and the Stolen Election of 2000?  Not hardly.  Here's what Chuckie says:

Although the three branches of government are all powerful concerning affairs of state, [I think Chuckie means that all three of them are powerful, not that they are all-powerful, but who knows?] it works well until one of them jumps the track. In a democracy, the overriding factor should always be the will of “We The People.” Nothing supersedes that. ... [Actually, Chuckie, part of democracy is all this annoying stuff about individual rights and, oh, never mind.]

Now the problem is, the Judicial Branch is not elected but is appointed by the sitting President, confirmed by the Senate and in the case of the Supreme Court, this arrangement is for life.

And Chuckie is calling for all right-thankin' people to git with it on this issue:

There have been instances recently where state Supreme Courts and the Supreme Court of the United States have gone against the deeply held convictions of the citizens of this nation. ...

Our forefathers never meant for this nation to be ruled by a bunch of tyrants in black robes. ...

Wake up America, wake up to this back door policy of eroding our rights and ignoring our beliefs.

Now, Chuckie's a little vague sometimes.  But this one sure does look like one of those nudge-nudge wink-wink kind of things where Chuckie is promoting a favorite current fad of the Christian Right, attempting to deprive the federal courts of the right to review laws passed by the Republican-controlled Congress.

This article attracted a bit of attention in the liberal regions of the blogosphere: Courts first to go in rightwing revolution by George McEvoy Palm Beach Post 11/27/04.

Every time the so-called Christian Right has tried to turn this country into a theocracy, those pesky federal courts have stymied things. ...

Reportedly, such leaders as the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Republican Rep. John Hostettler of Indiana, flush with what they see as a successful right-wing revolution, believe they can make the federal courts virtually powerless.

Rep. Hostettler, addressing a special legislative briefing of the Christian Coalition last month in Washington, reportedly talked at length about a bill he plans to introduce. It would deny federal courts the right to hear cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act, which bans same-sex marriage.

"Congress controls the federal judiciary," Rep. Hostettler was quoted as saying. "If Congress wants to, it can refer all cases to the state courts. Congress can say the federal courts have limited power to enforce their decision."

You might think this is kind of a strange trend, since the federal judiciary is already heavily Republican and Bush is likely to be able to appoint up to four Supreme Court Justices, probably all of them at least as conservative as Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.  But who ever said blowhard white guys were rational in politics?

I started to title this post, "This isn't your father's Republican Party."  Actually, today's Republican Party is your father's Southern Democratic Party, and your grandfather's and your great-grandfather's.  Segregationist sentiment didn't die out with the legal system of racial segregation.  It migrated to the Republican Party.  Today's Republican Party is what the Democratic Party in 1965 would have looked like if it had been led by Ross Barnett and Jim Eastland and Orville Faubus instead of by John Kennedy and Lyndon Johson. (Eazyguy62 makes this point also in his comment's to this post of Marcia Ellen's.)

And that's actually a big part of what this is about.  Ever since Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, in which the Supreme Court ruled segregated public schools unconsititutional, it's been a favorite hobby-horse of the segregationist crowd to strip the federal courts of the power of judicial review of the consitutionality of laws.  So this is a continuation of that same grudge match, even though we'll soon have a Supreme Court that will at least rival the Nine Old Men of Franklin Roosevelt's time in their reactionary zeal.

And, of course, Chuckie's worryin' about that thar United Nations thing, too.  Our wannabe Nashville guru of Patriotic Correctness says we should shouldn't even oughta be callin' it the United Nations:  "The very name of the organization is misleading. It is not the United Nations, in fact, about the only thing this bunch of overpaid so called diplomats are united in is their hate of all things American," ole Chuckie says.

I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from reading Chuckie's golden originals by quoting too much of them here.  But these selected quotes will give you an idea of what Chuckie thanks about this here America-hatin' bunch:

... corrupt ... out of control greed ... treachery, deceit and downright cruelty ... propping up the most cruel regime since Adolph Hitler ... clay feet [?] ... this bunch of thugs ... lining their pockets with blood money ... trying to get the embargos lifted so Saddam and his demonic regime could continue to torture and suppress the helpless people of Iraq ... [Chuckie isn't so worried about Americans torturing them Iraqis, as we've seen] ... a colossal waste of time ... colossal waste of money ... paper tiger [I think that's a quote from some kind of Commie or something, Chuckie, you might not want to use that one] ... a bunch of arrogant diplomats to town who park their cars wherever they please ... scandal ...

You know, I kinda think Chuckie just don't like the United Nations very much!

In fact, Chuckie has an idea: "It’s time for the United Nations to put its house in order. Clean it up or shut it down. I vote for the latter."

Now, Chuckie seems to be talking about the current flap over the "oil for food" program that is is being used by Radical Republicans to call for the resignation of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.  You can see a report about it here: The Oil-for-Food Scandal PBS Newshour 12/03/04. The short version is that the Reps are pumping up a pseudo-scandal (one of their specialties) over Kofi Annan as a way of discrediting the UN in general with the American public.  The evidence so far as I've heard about the alleged corruption in the "oil for food" program the UN ran for Iraq during the sanctions years is pretty inconclusive, so far.

But Chuckie and the Foxists never let that "reality-based" nonsense git in the way of a good rant.  I mean, how come we'd try to be workin' with a bunch a foreigners anyhow?  We've been handlin' thangs just as smooth as can be in Iraq, right?