Legal Commentary

The White House Is Political, So Is The SCOTUS

By Big Tent Democrat

Jan Crawford writes:

For the life of me, I just don't get why the White House continues to try to pick a fight with the Supreme Court. [. . . A]fter Chief Justice John Roberts made some entirely reasonable remarks yesterday -- and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs just had to respond [. . .]

Leave aside the misstatements in Crawford's piece (it was not the first time a President has criticized a SCOTUS decision in the SOTU and Roberts DID criticize Obama's choice to criticize the Citizen's United in the SOTU (Obama had criticized it before)), the political calculation for the White House is obvious -- Dems will run against Citizens United in this year's elections. Any chance to talk about it is welcome. CJ Roberts' ill advised remarks provided the White House that chance. More . . .

Crawford is either not smart about politics or, more likely, she is spouting a GOP talking point. Obviously, Crawford did not like the President's remarks on Citizens United in the SOTU. This disdain may be an artifact of the silly idea that the SCOTUS is not part of the political arena that many SCOTUS watchers share. It may be because she agrees with Citizens United.

Whatever the reason, it is not difficult to understand why the White House answered CJ Roberts' critique - because it was politically advantageous to do so. I find it hard to believe that Crawford really does not understand that.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 11, 2010 (boomark / email).