It's about the Supreme Court, Stupid

Pandering shamelessly to the social conservatives of the christian right yesterday, John McShameless gave us our rallying cry, if we can get our act together and take up the banner. A whole shitload of people need to get over their feelings of being aggrieved and sorely used because their candidate doesn't have it sewed up, because that other (clearly inferior) candidate won't step aside for the (clearly superior) alternative they were brilliant enough to get behind.

It isn't about you. It isn't even about your candidate. It is about the future of the republic itself...how our laws will be interpreted and applied and whether the freedoms we have traditionally enjoyed as Americans are restored; or whether they wither and die.

Highlighting an issue he plans to use aggressively in the general election campaign, Sen. John McCain on Tuesday decried "the common and systematic abuse of our federal courts by the people we entrust with judicial power" and pledged to nominate judges similar to the ones President Bush has placed on the bench.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. "would serve as the model for my own nominees, if that responsibility falls to me," highlighting the gap between Republicans and Democrats on the question of who should sit on the Supreme Court. Both justices have established strong conservative records since Bush appointed them, and the appointment of one more conservative to the nation's highest court could tip the balance on issues such as abortion, discrimination, civil liberties and private property.

The two remaining Democratic candidates, Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), opposed the nominations of Roberts and Alito.

"My nominees will understand that there are clear limits to the scope of judicial power, and clear limits to the scope of federal power," McCain told a crowd of several hundred at Wake Forest University's Wait Chapel, as he stood in front of nine American flags and mock-ups of the preamble to the Constitution.

Later in the day, he announced the formation of a conservative-leaning Justice Advisory Committee, which he said will counsel him on judicial appointments if he wins the presidency. The group, which will be chaired by former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), is a Who's Who of prominent conservative legal minds, with members including Princeton University professor Robert George and Rachel Brand, former assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Policy.

"Here's what McCain was really telling the party base: If you liked George W. Bush's nominees, you're going to love the judges John McCain will put on the bench," said Kathryn Kolbert, president of People for the American Way.

Yeah, rein in judicial power where polluting and thieving corporations are concerned, but when women and voters get uppity - that's a different story. When the former wants to control their bodies and the latter wants to participate in the Democratic process, judicial power can be appropriately applied to bring the rabble to heel.

I read stuff like this, and I get furious all over again about the pie-fights that erupt between Clinton and Obama supporters. I roll my eyes and curse you all. Let's just get this straight right now - I really don't care who you support or why. It doesn't matter. The bottom line is, we have to elect a Democratic president, and either of the Democratic nominees will be a better president than John "I call my wife a cunt and I want to stay in Iraq for a hundred years" McCain.

It. Isn't. About. You.

Got it yet?