The Glass House(10/04/2018)
Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down,
and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone,
and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more (John 8).
Under Article II, section 2 of the Constitution, the President shall nominate, and by and with the Advice
and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint . . .Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law.
Presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate. This is known as advice and consent and was adopted by Alexander Hamilton.
The Senate advises the president in his selection process and consents to or rejects the president's choice.
In deciding whether to block a nomination, senators also have every right to consider the nominee's ideology and judicial philosophy, not just his or her professional qualifications.
Nothing in the Constitution forbids such consideration. Responsible senators can and should scrutinize an attribute that might well have a major effect on the nominee's future performance on the bench
(Somin, Ilya, The Constitution does not require the Senate to give judicial nominees an up or down vote, The Washington Post, 2/17/2016).
The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing where the nominee provides testimony and responds to questions from members of the panel.
The Committee usually takes a month to collect and receive all necessary records, from the FBI and other sources, about the nominee and for the nominee to be prepared for the hearings.
Traditionally, the Committee refers the nomination to the full Senate for consideration. During the hearings, witnesses, both supporting and opposing the nomination, present their views.
Senators question the nominee on his or her qualifications, judgment, and philosophy.
The Judiciary Committee then votes on the nomination and sends its recommendation (that it be confirmed, that it be rejected, or with no recommendation) to the full Senate.
After the full senate debates the nomination, the senate votes on the nomination. A simple majority of the Senators present and voting is required for the judicial nominee to be confirmed.
If there is a tie, the Vice President who also presides over the Senate casts the deciding vote (Supreme Court Nominations Research Guide, Georgetown Law Library; http://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=365722&p=2471070).
An appointment to the Supreme Court is a lifetime selection. Justices can only be removed by impeachment. This is a difficult process.
In the history of the Supreme Court only one justice has been impeached. Impeachment requires a House vote.
If a majority of House members vote to impeach, the Senate holds a trial to weigh the charges. Conviction and removal from office requires a 67-vote supermajority in the Senate.
Below is a synopsis of the character of the "esteemed senators" who work in "The Glass House".
They have served on the Senate Judiciary Committee that judged the judges including Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, and most recently Brett Kavanaugh.
Joe Biden
Joe Biden served as the 47th Vice President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Delaware as a U.S. Senator from 1973 to 2009.
He chaired the Judiciary Committee during the contentious U.S. Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.
While attending law school at the University of Syracuse, Biden was accused of having plagiarized 5 of 15 pages of a law review article.
Biden said it was inadvertent, due to his not knowing the proper rules of citation, and he was permitted to retake the course after receiving an "F" grade, which was subsequently dropped from his record.
In 1987, Biden was driven from the Democratic presidential nomination battle after delivering, without attribution, passages from a speech by British Labor party leader Neil Kinnock
(Fedding Frenzy, . Joseph Biden's Plagiarism; Michael Dukakis's 'Attack Video' - 1988; https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/biden.htm)
Biden is also not adverse to threatening violence. At a Hillary Clinton campaign stop in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Biden said he would "take Trump behind the gym.
He also stated at the University of Miami, according to ABC News. "They asked me if I'd like to debate this gentleman, and I said 'no.' I said, 'If we were in high school, I'd take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.' "
Richard Blumenthal
Richard Blumenthal is an American attorney and politician who has served as a United States Senator from Connecticut since 2011.
He is a member of the Democratic Party. He has been the state's senior senator since 2013 and is ranked as the second wealthiest member of the Senate.
During the senate confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh on September 27th, Senator Blumenthal began his questioning by asking Judge Kavanaugh if he was aware of the jury instruction "falsus in - in unibus (sic), falsus in omnibus", meaning false in one thing, false in everything. This line of questioning was ironic considering its source.
In March of 2008, then Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal was quoted that he served in Vietnam.
The problem is he never served in Vietnam. He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war,
according to records (https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18blumenthal.html).
According to the New York Times, in 2003, he addressed a rally in Bridgeport, where about 100 military families gathered to express support for American troops overseas.
"When we returned, we saw nothing like this," Mr. Blumenthal said. "Let us do better by this generation of men and women."
The Times states that at a 2008 ceremony in front of the Veterans War Memorial Building in Shelton, he praised the audience for paying tribute to troops fighting abroad, noting that America had not always done so.
"I served during the Vietnam era," he said. "I remember the taunts, the insults, sometimes even physical abuse."
Corey Booker
Cory Booker is an American politician serving as the junior United States Senator from New Jersey since 2013 and a member of the Democratic Party.
The first African-American U.S. Senator from New Jersey, he was previously the 36th Mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013.
Although Booker is considered a social liberal who supports women's rights, affirmative action and same-sex marriage.
In a 1990 column in the Stanford Daily, Booker admitted that as a teenager he had "hated gays" (https://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/01/09/cory-booker-pointing-the-finger-at-gays/).
The Stanford Daily also reported on sexual misconduct by Corey Booker. Ironically, while the senate confirmation hearing on Judge Brett Kavanaugh focused on the accusation of sexual misconduct from 35 years prior, the only person in the room who had committed sexual misconduct was Corey Booker.
In the 1990s Booker wrote in the Stanford Daily, of a 1984 incident where he groped a Stanford student at a New Year's party.
When he was in high school, Cory Booker, the New Jersey Democrat and possible White House contender, groped his classmate as they kissed.
He reached for her breast, and when she swatted his hand away, he made another attempt (https://stanforddailyarchive.com/cgi-bin/stanford?a=d&d=stanford19920219-01.2.16).
Robert Byrd
Robert Byrd was a United States Senator from West Virginia for over 51 years, from 1959 until his death in 2010. He is the longest-serving U.S. Senator in history.
His illustrious career includes filibustering against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Byrd spoke against the bill for fourteen straight hours.
Democrats referred to Robert Byrd as "the conscience of the Senate." Byrd entered politics as a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan.
Byrd craved the pursuit of higher learning, the responsibilities of leadership and a sense of belonging. In 1942, he believed he'd found just that as a member of the white supremacist group,
the Ku Klux Klan. He described the organization as a group of "upstanding people"-doctors, lawyers, clergy,
judges-who he thought could "provide an outlet for [his] talents and ambitions" and also supported his opposition to communism.
Encouraged by the grand dragon of his KKK branch, Byrd ran on the Democratic ticket for West Virginia's House of Delegates in 1946 (https://www.biography.com/people/robert-c-byrd-579660).
In 1946, Byrd wrote a letter to a Grand Wizard stating, "The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation."
Robert Byrd is quoted in a letter to Senator Theadore Bilbo saying, "I shall never fight in the armed forces with a negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times,
and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels,
a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds" - Robert Byrd in a letter to Senator Theadore Bilbo.
Byrd was the only senator to vote against confirming both Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas to the United States Supreme Court, the only two African-American nominees.
Byrd use of the term "white nigger", in a March 4th, 2001 interview with Tony Snow, created controversy and he later apologized.
Dennis DeConcini
Dennis DeConcini is the former Democratic U.S. Senator from Arizona. The son of former Arizona Supreme Court Judge Evo Anton DeConcini, he represented Arizona in the United States Senate from 1977 until 1995.
DeConcini was a member of the "Keating Five". The Keating Five refers to a corruption scandal of 1989. At the time, five important United States Senators were accused of corruption related to the Savings and Loan crisis in 1989.
This political scandal came to represent all that Americans found (and still today find) wrong with their nationally elected congressional representatives.
The five Senators endured serious accusations of having unethically involved themselves on the material behalf of banker Charles H. Keating, Jr. who was then Chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association in 1987.
This bank became the subject of a more than routine regulatory investigation run by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the FHLBB.
This government group later backed away from acting against the bank, apparently without sufficient reasoning.
Three of the five accused Senators, Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle, were found guilty of unethically interfering with the government investigation of the bank that might have allowed them to wind down the bank before it imploded at a loss of billions of dollars.
The Keating and Lincoln Savings scandal became a symbol of all that was inherently crooked about the financial system and ethics in American society.
In the spring of 1992, a playing cards deck had been created, marketed, and sold under the name of the "Savings and Loan Scandal."
On the card faces were Charles Keating, Jr. holding up his hand. For the faces of the puppets on each of his fingers were the portraits of the Keating Five Senators
(What was the Keating Five?; https://www.financial-dictionary.info/terms/keating-five/).
Rolling Stone has included the Keating Five scandal as one of the top 10 political scandals In history (https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-lists/top-ten-political-scandals-22369/the-keating-five-184443/).
Dick Durbin
Is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Illinois since 1997. He has been the Assistant Democratic Leader, the second-highest position in the Democratic Party leadership in the Senate,
since 2005, serving as Minority Whip from 2005 to 2007, Majority Whip from 2007 to 2015, and Minority Whip again since 2015.
In June of 2005, Durbin likened American service men to Nazis. Durbin stated, "We are fighting an enemy that murdered 3,000 innocent people on American soil 3 1/2 years ago and would murder millions more if given the chance--and according to Dick Durbin,
our soldiers are the Nazis" (Taranto, James, WSJ Opinion Journal, 6/15/2005; https://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/31903).
On June 21st, Senator Durbin apologized for his remarks alleging abuse of prisoners by American troops to techniques used by the Nazis, the Soviets and the Khmer Rouge
(Murray, Shaiagh, Durbin Apologizes for Remarks on Abuse, The Washington Post, 6/22/2005).
In 2014 it was reported that some of Durbin's lobbyist wife's clients have received federal funding promoted by Durbin.
In addition to announcing the award of monies to ten clients of his wife's lobbying firm, these conflicts included her lobbying firm receiving a one-year contract with a housing nonprofit group around the time the senator went to bat for the organization;
a state university receiving funds through an earmark by Durbin when his wife was its lobbyist; and Durbin arranging federal money for a public health nonprofit when his wife was seeking state support for the same group
(Skiba, Katherine and Geiger, Kim; When interests overlap, for Durbin, lobbyist wife, The Chicago Tribune 10/1/2018).
Dick Durbin is Roman Catholic. In 2004, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois barred him from receiving communion because he voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.
In 2018, the decision to deny Durbin communion in the Springfield Diocese was affirmed by Bishop Thomas John Paprocki after Durbin's vote against the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (Chasmar, Jessica; dick Durbin barred from Communion by Catholic bishop of Springfield, The Washington Times 2/23/2018).
Dianne Feinstein
Senator Feinstein is the former mayor of San Francisco and current senator from California. She is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senator Feinstein had a Chinese spy connection she didn't know about- her driver (https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Sen-Feinstein-had-a-Chinese-connection-she-13121441.php).
Feinstein employed a Chinese spy on her staff who worked for her for about 20 years, was listed as an "office director" on payroll records and served as her driver when she was in San Francisco
(Explain the Chinese spy, Sen. Feinstien, 8/9/2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/explain-the-chinese-spy-sen-feinstein/2018/08/09/0560ca60-9bfd-11e8-b60b-1c897f17e185_story.html?utm_term=.52b5e58e8c38).
Senator Feinstein reached a new low for dirty politics when she withheld Dr. Christine Ford's allegations against Supreme Court nominee Judge Michael Kavanaugh for 20 days.
Feinstein met privately with Judge Kavanaugh before the hearings knowing that she had her staff recommended a lawyer to Dr. Ford but never revealing this to Kavanaugh.
The allegations were leaked to the Washington Post after the senate confirmation hearings and shortly before a vote for confirmation creating a firestorm.
Al Franken
Al Franken is an American comedian, writer, producer, author, and former politician who served as a United States Senator from Minnesota from 2009 to 2018.
He became well known in the 1970s and 1980s as a performer on the television comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL).
After decades as a comedic actor and writer, he became a prominent liberal political activist, hosting The Al Franken Show on Air America Radio.
Franken resigned on January 2, 2018, after several allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him.
Leeann Tweeden, a broadcaster and former model, is accusing Franken of unwanted kissing and groping during a USO tour they both embarked upon in 2006.
Particularly damning is a photo that shows Franken placing his hands over the breasts of an apparently sleeping Tweeden. Tweeden says she discovered the photo later and was horrified.
She says Franken also forcibly kissed her while rehearsing a sketch on the trip, but that nobody else saw it
(Blake, Aaron; Al Franken's past comments on sexual assault complicate his effort to dispute Leeann Tweeden's allegation; The Washington Post, 11/16/2017).
On December 7, 2017, Franken announced his intention to resign his Senate seat.
Edward "Ted" Kennedy
Ted Kennedy was an American politician who served in the United States Senate from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009.
A member of the Democratic Party, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-continuously-serving senator in United States history.
He was the youngest brother of John F. "Jack" Kennedy-the 35th President of the United States-and Senator Robert F. "Bobby" Kennedy, both victims of assassination, and the father of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy.
Within moments of the nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, he issued a statement in what life would be like in a frightening place called, "Robert Bork's America".
In 1946, Ted entered Milton Academy, an exclusive college prep boarding school eight miles south of Boston.
At Milton, Ted immersed himself in athletics, drama, debate, and the glee club. While he performed well, he failed to be a standout student when compared to his over-achieving brothers.
His father rode him relentlessly about his grades as well as his weight, and encouraged his son to push himself harder.
Ted graduated in 1950, and followed his brothers to Harvard University. The youngest Kennedy immediately immersed himself in Harvard's football team, but that Spring, he discovered that he was failing his Spanish class.
In order to stay on the team, he would have to pass his final Spanish exam. Ted was expelled when, in desperation, he had another student take a Spanish exam in his place
(https://www.biography.com/people/ted-kennedy-9362890).
On the evening of July 18, 1969, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts Ted Kennedy hosted a party at a rented cottage secluded on Chappaquiddick Island,
which is accessible via ferry from the town of Edgartown on the nearby larger island, Martha's Vineyard.
The gathering, at the cottage of Sidney Lawrence,was a reunion for a group of six single women all in their twenties that included Rosemary Keough, Esther Newberg, sisters Nance Lyons and Mary Ellen Lyons,
Susan Tannenbaum, and Mary Jo Kopechne.
Later that night, a black Oldsmobile driven by U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy plunged off the Dike Bridge on the tiny island of Chappaquiddick, off Martha's Vineyard, landing upside down in the tidal Poucha Pond.
The 37-year-old Kennedy survived the crash, but the young woman riding with him in the car didn't.
Though newspaper headlines at the time identified her simply as a "blonde," she was 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, a respected political operative who had worked on the presidential campaign of Senator Kennedy's brother,
Robert Kennedy.
Kennedy later claimed he dove repeatedly "into the strong and murky current" to try and find Kopechne before making his way back to the cottage.
He then drove back to the scene with his cousin, Joseph Gargan, and aide Paul Markham, who both tried in vain to reach Kopechne.
But rather than report the accident to the police at that time, Kennedy returned to his hotel in Edgartown.
As a result, Mary Jo Kopechne remained underwater for some nine hours until her body was recovered the next morning
(Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick Incident: What Really Happened; https://www.history.com/news/ted-kennedy-chappaquiddick-incident-what-really-happened-facts).
Howard Metzenbaum
Howard Metzenbaum was an American politician and businessman who served for almost 20 years as a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate from Ohio (1974, 1976-1995).
When running for in senate against fellow Ohio Democrat John Glenn, Metzenbaum asked Glenn, "How can you run for Senate when you've never held a 'job'?".
Glenn's reply came to be noted as John Glenn's Gold Star Mother's speech and is listed below.
"I ask you to go with me, as I went the other day to a Veterans Hospital, and look those men with their mangled bodies in the eye and tell them they didn't hold a job.
"You go with me to any Gold Star mother, and you look her in the eye and tell her that her son did not hold a job.
"You go with me to the space program, and you go as I have gone to the widows and the orphans of Ed White and Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their dad didn't hold a job.
"You go with me on Memorial Day coming up, and you stand on Arlington National Cemetery - where I have more friends than I like to remember - and you watch those waving flags, and you stand there,
and you think about this nation, and you tell me that those people didn't have a job.
"I tell you, Howard Metzenbaum, you should be on your knees every day of your life thanking God that there were some men - SOME MEN - who held a job. And they required a dedication to purpose and a love of country and a dedication to duty that was more important than life itself.
"And their self-sacrifice is what has made this country possible.
"I HAVE HELD A JOB, HOWARD!"
Sheldon Whitehouse
Sheldon Whitehouse (born October 20, 1955) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States Senator from Rhode Island since 2007.
In September 2008, Whitehouse came under scrutiny due to possible insider trading. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, bought shares in pharmaceutical firms McKesson MCK, +0.11%, Gilead GILD, +0.98%
and Abbott Labs ABT, +0.91% 10 days before a significant medical research bill was made public, according to the report.
He and his wife later bought additional stock in Gilead and Amgen AMGN, +0.05% two days before the House voted on the bill.
He sits on the Senate committee that oversees health care. The day President Barack Obama signed the bill into law, Whitehouse started a series of three sales of shares in those companies
(Schroeder, Robert; Stock trading leaves Congress with conflicts | Big energy wants Trump to slow down deregulation; 5/15/2017; MarketWatch.com))
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