Loading ...Santorum and Roberts: Dumb on Baseball, Dumb on Government
July 31st, 2005 by SteveSo I was reading through a transcript of George Stephanopoulos interviewing Sen. Rick Santorum [R - Naturally], and I caught this little gem during a discussion of Roe v. Wade and the Supreme Court.
You know, what Judge Roberts talks about is a principle that we haven’t seen much lately, something called judicial restraint.
If you look at our checks and balances, really, the courts don’t really have any oversight over them. And so, throughout history, the courts have said, Look, we understand that we have potentially enormous power, and we’re going to restrain ourselves from exercising that power.
I heard Judge Roberts say the other day that, you know, a baseball game would be a pretty sad game if the umpire was the most important player on the field. [emphasis mine]
(Side note: read the rest; it’s pretty contradictory, and stupid, stuff)
Uh-huh… well Mr. Santorum and Mr. Roberts, let me tell you something. I umpire at the local little league, and the umpire is the most important “player” on the field. Without an umpire with a strong personality, a thorough understanding of the rules, and the ability to relate to the players, parents/fans, and coaches, the game gets out of control. Considering that Mr. Santorum is a big purporter “family values”, and that that crowd likes to hide behind great youth institutions like Little League, it’s a shame he [and Roberts] obviously has no understanding of how important the umpire [or referee, or whatever] is.
This further leads me to believe that Mr. Santorum and Mr. Roberts don’t understand how the judicial branch of the government functions. This can actually be seen in an exchange just a little bit later:
SANTORUM: And the court is really supposed to be an umpire between the legislative branch and the executive branch. Instead, they’re trying to play the game.
*buzzer sound* urhn! Wrong answer! The Supreme Court, firstly, isn’t just about keeping the other 2 branches of the government off each other; it also mediates between state governments, between any government and a citizen, between companies and a government, etc etc. The Supreme Court is not just some glorified umpire.
Second of all, as I already mentioned, umpires ARE the most important “player” on the field. Without them, the game gets out of control. the umpire moves the game along. The fact that neither Santorum nor Roberts (nor, by extension, the conservative movement) recognizes the importance and necessity of the Supreme Court shows that they would drastically weaken the Court, strip it to a simple body that simply mediated disputes between the two other branches of government. And that’s something America can’t afford to have.
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