According to Jeffrey Toobin’s new book on the Supreme Court, Justice David Souter nearly resigned in the wake of Bush v. Gore, so distraught was he over the decision that effectively ended the Florida recount and installed George W. Bush as president.
In “The Nine,” which goes on sale Sept. 18, Toobin writes that while the other justices tried to put the case behind them:
“David Souter alone was shattered, at times weeping when he thought of the case. For many months, it was not at all clear whether he would remain as a justice. That the Court met in a city he loathed made the decision even harder. At the urging of a handful of close friends, he decided to stay on, but his attitude toward the Court was never the same.”
For whatever it’s worth Justice Souter, the nation wept with you.
8 Comments
+ at 11:04 am
The 2000 election was a well orchestrated, political coup d’etat that made the GOP in-charge of all three branches of government.
How many people remember that dreadful November night when the CNN reporter asked Poppy and his brat son how they felt to be trailing Vice President Gore. Poppy looked at his boy and said, “that’s impossible.”
You see, if you can’t win an election fair and honestly, then you steal it.
+ at 11:49 am
Well, well, well: so there was at least one member of the High Court with a conscience. Too bad there weren’t a few more – then maybe things would’ve turned out different in 2000.
+ at 12:12 pm
That is a surprise, I assumed they were counting their payoff money.
+ at 12:23 pm
Sorry to change topics Christopher but look at this:
The “most feared man” on Capitol Hill promises he’s going to release the names of a few more closeted Republicans in the months to come.
In a Tuesday profile of Washington outing blogger Mike Rogers by Jose Antonio Vargas, the 43-year-old activist says he plans to release the names of “a few more” closeted Congressmembers on his blog, blogACTIVE.
The onetime fundraiser outed Larry Craig on his blog last October. Following his post, the Idaho Statesman dispatched a reporter to this story — a piece which remained canned until revelations that Craig was arrested for lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport bathroom appeared in August.
Larry Craig wasn’t “the first on my list,” Rogers told the Post. “And the Idaho senator, who announced his resignation Saturday, ‘won’t be the last.’”
+ at 2:56 pm
Interesting. I usually find Toobs to be an insufferable twit but his book sounds intriguing. I wonder how Ruth Bader Ginsburg felt about the theft of an American presidential election? Was she troubled or at peace?
+ at 4:21 pm
The time for tears has past. Now we must get angry and get Gore in the White House. Never again will the American people let another 2000 take place. We will not forget.
+ at 7:20 pm
The year 2000 will mark the era when the American Republic died and the short-lived American Federal Empire(TM) began.
The majority of people still don’t care.
+ at 11:45 am
“ALBERTO” (NOT GONZALES BUT GORE)
Al Gore won the election but he didn´t get the job,
Perhaps fortuitous because–you know, he is no snob
In that he doesn´t need a bunch of sycophants surrounding
To keep integrity and work for public weal–astounding!
Consider other presidents what they did afterwards,
George Herbert Walker, who slipped into oil-merchants´ boards,
So to ensure a steady flow of profits as they come
(His father Prescott built the roads and bought petroleum),
While Gore, too much the activist to crab and play the martyr,
Engaged in useful business, taking after… Jimmy Carter?
He talked about the consequence of overpopulation
And startled to awakeness (by his words) a slumbering nation.
Had he been President the wiley-wayed Republicans
Would have harassed him endlessly–minutia by their guns
As target, slander, and obstruct in every breaking moment:
Instead he hath bequeathed us (if God wills) a great endowment,
Perhaps chance for survival while the immanent disaster
Accelerates at glacial speed (now glaciers move much faster),
If only men will not put off until some other season
What must be done, despite that some commit a human treason
Warmongering and profiteering with Assaults on Reason.