Mark Shields: 'John Roberts, Sam Alito - Thank You' for 'Absolutely Screwing' Up Our Political System
Syndicated columnist Mark Shields on Friday excoriated Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts for "taking our system and absolutely screwing it up completely."
Appearing on PBS's Inside Washington, Shields was complaining about how "these campaigns have been taken over totally by Super PACs" as a result of the Citizens United decision (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MARK SHIELDS, PBS: Let’s get one thing straight: these campaigns have been taken over totally by Super PACs. Newt Gingrich's Super PAC in the states of Oklahoma, Tennessee and Georgia outspent his campaign 70 to 1. 70 to 1. So that this is just a fiction. Hello John Roberts, Sam Alito - thank you very much for just taking our system and absolutely screwing it up completely.
So this is all Alito and Roberts's fault?
How about swing-voter Anthony Kennedy who in any 5-4 decision acts as the tiebreaker?
Taking even a broader view, why not point fingers at John McCain and Russ Feingold whose 2002 campaign finance bill likely ushered in the Citizens United decision?
Nah. It's all on Alito and Roberts.
After all, they were appointed by President George W. Bush and therefore always deserving of media scorn.
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Comments
Ha Ha....
Submitted by NeoKong on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 4:59pm.
Eat it leftie.
Citizen's United finally leveled the playing field for Republicans.
Public and private labor unions were donating almost exclusively to Democrats to the tune of $100's and 100's of millions.
What shields doesn't really like is the fact that Republicans can now raise buckets of cash to compete against all that union money.
The very first time they could compete they wiped out Pelosi's Congress and next fall the Senate goes red too.
In just one election cycle two huge majorities will be stripped away and laid to waste and maybe the White House too.
Shields means "Damn! We don't control the message anymore!"
Submitted by drsamherman on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 5:06pm.
With the advent of the Citizen's United decision and the internet, Democrats no longer have control over the narrative, the media or the message and they hate it. Absolutely they hate their loss of influence and control.
Gone are the days when NYT stories went unchallenged except for the occasional token conservative on a mainstream dead tree or electronic medium. Now they can be fact-checked, and it drives them nuts.
The constant deflections, smoke and mirrors are not working anymore. This next election will be decided largely on how able the media alternatives are in finally giving Obatears a proper vetting that the mainstream media shielded him from in 2008.
-like-
Submitted by Free Stinker on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 5:08pm.
You broke the code ! ;-)
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
Ding....Ding.... Ding
Submitted by donabernathy on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 5:29pm.
We have a Winner......
""With the advent of the Citizen's United decision and the internet, Democrats no longer have control over the narrative, the media or the message and they hate it. Absolutely they hate their loss of influence and control.""
Dollars supporting liberty,
Submitted by fscarn on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 5:25pm.
And the left hates it. To the left liberty, economic and personal, is never to be supported, only chipped away.
Shields
Submitted by mmilesll on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 5:28pm.
Why are you still on TV, oh I forgot, it's PBS-so you aren't on TV are you.
Not Alito or Roberts
Submitted by oldfart on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 5:42pm.
GEORGE BUSH DID IT.
LOL
Not Shields
Submitted by oldfart on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 5:46pm.
That is not Mark Shields - he is brain dead - they just wind him up when they want someone to say something stupid.
Blame the US Constitution not Roberts or Alito
Submitted by libBuster on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 6:01pm.
Blame the First Amendment of the United States Constitution not Alito or Roberts. Shields wants to regulate speech he finds annoying or inconvenient.. That's what the First Amendment was designed to prevent.
It especially applies to political speech. Cudos to Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, Thomas and Scalia for understanding the plain words of the Constitution.
Shame on you Shields.
Your post also points to the danger posed
Submitted by UpNorth on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 7:32pm.
by a second term for Baracka and continued dem control of the Senate. The United States is one justice away from the tyranny of the PC, feel good left.
Court out of Politics
Submitted by libBuster on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 10:13pm.
Newt Gingrich had a good point. It is time for Congress to take Federal Courts out of politics. No where is lifetime tenure enshrined in the Consitution. The Constitution refers only to 'good behavoir'. What constitutes 'good behavoir' and the process for removing judges is entirely up to Congress.
It is time for Congress to set some 'good behavoir' standards and strart removing judges who want to be Judicial Oligarchs.
My, my,
Submitted by bobsmom on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 6:06pm.
they do hate a level playing field, don't they? They're so used to being bullies, and sadly, we've all just kind of shrugged, shook our heads and ignored them for years. The problem with that, is they took our "whatever boneheads" attitude as tacit agreement and used the opportunity to step so far over the line that the country is becoming more unrecognizable daily. They underestimate us, they shriek and howl, and we stay quiet, and observe them as they fling their feces. They need to take a minute and relflect on 2 words, "silent majority".
Arch liberal media type Mark Shields gripes
Submitted by needle on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 6:20pm.
That Alito and Roberts has mess up our political systems by allowing Super PACs
Shield sure is miserable; there used to be only one Super[-duper] PAC, and that was his own sweet Liberal media.
Go ahead Mark kick the walls, gripe P*ss, and moan. No, don’t stop now! Keep it up! More! More! More! I love it.
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
Shields' many chins,
Submitted by fscarn on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 6:39pm.
Mezmerize me,
His arguments, not so mush,
Yeah, it was so much better
Submitted by Average_JoeMN on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 8:09pm.
Yeah, it was so much better when only the commie unions could run ads against conservatives.
Please.
George W Bush
Submitted by Free Stinker on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 10:17pm.
Despite all the valid complaints we had about Bush-43, he did give us two great SCOTUS judges.
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
Shields is right. Judges
Submitted by celator on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 10:35pm.
Shields is right. Judges Roberts and Alito have screwed up the political system of the liberal radical progressives. And they, hopefully, will continue to do so.
my money
Submitted by CJohnson on Sun, 03/11/2012 - 1:06am.
Now some of my money get's to go where my mouth is too.