Republican In Hot Water Over Daring To Suggest That Elderly Liberal Judge With Cancer Might Die Soon
How dare he!
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), already in political trouble for 2010, didn’t help matters any over the weekend.
At a Lincoln Day Dinner speech over the weekend, Bunning predicted that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would likely be dead from pancreatic cancer in nine months, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The paper reports that Bunning reiterated his support of conservative judges, saying “that’s going to be in place very shortly because Ruth Bader Ginsburg…has cancer.”
“Bad cancer. The kind you don’t get better from,” Bunning went on. “Even though she was operated on, usually nine months is the longest that anybody would live after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.”
Like it or not, given the nature of their lifetime appointments, the life expectancy of the various Supreme Court justices is a valid topic for political discussion. Perhaps if the justices served terms, or were inclined to resign their posts once their health started to fade, or perhaps even if the court itself hadn’t morphed into yet another partisan branch of government over the last several decades, this wouldn’t be so. But things are the way they are, and whether you find it unsavory or not Justice Ginsburg’s life expectancy is an important political topic. Because he replacement is important.
Not as important as some would like though, unfortunately. Ginsburg is perhaps the most liberal judge on the court. If she steps down – or, and let’s hope not, if she should die – at any point in the next four years her replacement will be nominated by one of the most liberal Presidents in the history of this country and rubber-stamped by what is perhaps one of the most liberal Congresses in the history of this country.
Conservatives aren’t likely to get an appointment they like at the end of the day.
