Monday, January 16, 2006
Comparing Courts
I think most of us were struck by the mean absurdity if the Alito hearings last week. Any time Mark Steyn can make this much fun of the opposition, you know things we poorly.
Consider the continuing soap opera that is the trial of Saddam Hussein.
My recent jury experience tells me that nothing could be more important in any court today than a strong and able judge. They need to be able to make sure the inmates are not running the asylum. Too many times now I have seen the smart ones in the counsel's chairs and the one that could not hack practicing law, judging it. Kinda like teachers. (You know, "those that can do, those that can't teach.")
I figure if Alito can handle the Dems this well, he'll be fantastic on the bench. That's more important than you might think at first.
Related Tags: court, judge, jury, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Saddam Hussien, trial
Even smear tactics require a certain plausibility. When you damn someone as a big scary mega-troubling racist misogynist homophobe and he seems to any rational observer perfectly non-scary and non-troubling, eventually you make yourself ridiculous. The boy who cried "Wolf!" at least took the precaution of doing so when there was no alleged predator in view. If he'd stood there crying "Wolf!" while pointing at a hamster, he'd have been led away for counseling. That's the stage the Senate Democrats are at.One must; however, be grateful that Samuel Alito is a genuine "hamster." Never has the need for serious jurisprudence been more apparent.
Consider the continuing soap opera that is the trial of Saddam Hussein.
The trial of Saddam Hussein was thrown into disarray last night after the resignation of its chief judge in protest at government criticism of the way he has run the court.Even having a trial for someone like Saddam Hussein is a questionable effort. It sure would have helped if he had taken his own final solution, ala Hilter, or if he had been shot trying to run away when he was captured, but alas here we are.
Rizgar Mohammed Amin, who chairs the five-strong panel trying Saddam and seven co-defendants for war crimes, handed in his notice after repeated accusations that he had failed to keep those in the dock under proper control.
My recent jury experience tells me that nothing could be more important in any court today than a strong and able judge. They need to be able to make sure the inmates are not running the asylum. Too many times now I have seen the smart ones in the counsel's chairs and the one that could not hack practicing law, judging it. Kinda like teachers. (You know, "those that can do, those that can't teach.")
I figure if Alito can handle the Dems this well, he'll be fantastic on the bench. That's more important than you might think at first.
Related Tags: court, judge, jury, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Saddam Hussien, trial
