The law and the jungle

Dan Carpenter is an Indianapolis Star columnist who might even be too liberal for The Journal Gazette's editorial page. In this offering, we learn that he will go to the mat for Evan Bayh, doesn't think much of John Roberts, has no appreciation for the Constitution and has utter contempt for any Hoosier to the right of, well, Dan Carpenter. This probably won't make him feel better.

Don't want to say I told you so, but . . . I told you so. The Star editorial is undoubtedly right that this move was probably designed to help get Bayh through the early appease-the-liberal-base primaries. But it will make it harder for him to rush back to the center, where he needs to be, if he does get through those.

Evan Bayh has now come out against John Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court. Well, not against, exactly. From a Bayh office press release:

Regrettably, therefore, I cannot vote to confirm, not because I oppose John Roberts, but because we simply do not know enought about his views on critical issues to make a considered judgment.

Let's see. We have foreign terrorists to worry about, not to mention domestic monsters of all sorts as well as fraud and robbery and kidnapping and God knows what else, so of course we should make the FBI's new prime mission going after adult porn. If this truly is what some suspect, the attorney general's attempt to curry favor with the GOP base in hopes of a Supreme Court appointment, may he end up in Terre Haute as a public defender, representing destitute drunk-driving child molesters.

I'm happy to report that the eminent-domain oafs who tried to muscle in on a group's plans for a private school, reported on yesterday, have backed off. Note that, though school officials had sent the group a "strongly worded" threatening letter, they now say it was all a "misunderstanding." Cretins.

Here is the followup story (from the same annoying newspaper site that requires registration):

All schools that get federal money have been required this year to devote a day to teaching students about the U.S. Constitution. How much do you know? Take this 10-question quiz and find out. Not to put any pressure on you, but I got 9 out of 10 right.

Sorry to keep hitting you with all these eminent domain postings, but the Supreme Court's Kelo decision is one of the most serious assaults on our freedom in years. Here' s an up-close view from the Kelo whose refusal to give in led to the case in the first place.

When eminent domain is used to take property for actual public projects, such as roads, bridges and schools, instead of private use masquerading as public good, that's OK, right? Well, how about when a group of people spend enormous time, money and energy getting ready to build themselves a priave school, then the local school system comes along at the last minute and says, "Good idea, we think we'd like to build a school there instead"?

You can probably figure out what the vulgarity is. If people never said anything but nice things, we wouldn't need a First Amendment:

"As much as you might shake your head at what kind of reasoning is involved, it's not prohibited," Conboy said. "A person who wants to make a statement in public, that doesn't invoke a violent response, is protected by the constitution."

John Roberts has finished his testimony, and nobody touched him or made him flinch. The only question remaining is how many Senate Democrats will vote for him. It had better be quite a few, or the party will show itself to be completey out of touch with that "mainstream" everybody keeps talking about.