Please, Senator Schumer, No More Bus Analogies!

Commenting on speculation over the weekend that a SCOTUS nomination for Judge Janice Rogers Brown would be announced at a wreath-laying ceremony for Rosa Parks, Article III Groupie expressed her fear that such a move would lead to "tortured, bus-related metaphors."

Even though that scenario did not come to pass, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) decided to offer us a tortured, bus-related simile anyway. He was quoted in this Washington Post article as follows:

"Like Rosa Parks, Judge Alito will be able to change history by virtue of where he sits," Schumer said. "The real question today is whether Judge Alito would use his seat on the bench, just as Rosa Parks used her seat on the bus, to change history for the better or whether he would use that seat to reverse much of what Rosa Parks and so many others fought so hard and for so long to put in place."

It goes without saying: this is perfectly dreadful stuff. A3G agrees with Hugh Hewitt:

Chuck Schumer just argued that it is possible that Judge Alito, as Justice Alito, would roll back the achievements of Rosa Parks. That can only be understood as Schumer's belief that Judge Alito could find segregationist policies acceptable under the constitution. While it is undeniable that the nomination of Robert Byrd would have raised such a question, it is preposterous and indeed base to even hint at such a thing about a distinguished judge and public servant.

Aside from being utterly without foundation, Senator Schumer's bus analogy is silly and stupid. And if you're going to be silly and stupid, why not go all the way? Expect Senator Schumer -- who displayed an interest in movies during the Roberts confirmation hearings -- to deliver the following remarks during the floor debate on Judge Alito's nomination (in that nasal and annoying voice of his):

We've all seen the movie Speed. Think of the Supreme Court as a bus. The Supreme Court Bus, with moderates like Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony M. Kennedy at the wheel, is hurtling down the Highway of Justice. If the speed of the Supreme Court Bus drops below 50 miles per hour, the Bomb of Reactionary Conservatism will explode -- making meaningless all of the distance that the bus has traveled since the days of the Warren Court.

We can't let that happen. Our Supreme Court Bus still has many miles to travel down the Highway of Justice. We must stop Judge Samuel Alito now, before he stops our Bus!

Heaven help us... Can someone please throw Chuckie from the bus?

Comments

[Hewitt?]

Ugh. Citing Hugh Hewitt? The guy has to be the most idiotic partisan commentator out there.

He gave Miers a B+. He said she could be supported since her defeat would spell the end of the war on terror. Just last week he was claiming that no republican had ever exaggerated. EVER.

Please don't cite to that idiot again.

[Barb]

The liberals like Schumer and Reid are fuming at the mouth, because they know this guy is going to get confirmed, bar some Republicans jumping off the band wagon. And, I don't think that will happen with this candidate. I think President Bush did a great job in picking Alito. A cousin wrote me this morning and said, 'The fact that Chuck Schumer, the great unifier, would think he would be divisive makes Alito my guy.' I tend to agree!

[Flex]

Scrappleface had its own parody of CS:

(2005-10-31) — Federal Appeals Court Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President George Bush's most recent Supreme Court nominee, is "hopelessly overqualified" for the nation's highest court, according to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY.

"While average Americans had urged the president to appoint someone in the Harriet Miers tradition," said Sen. Schumer, "Bush disappoints them by picking a Princeton and Yale graduate who's a veteran jurist with a sharp intellect and rich legal experience. All of that ability and wisdom will be wasted at the Supreme Court, where his main job is simply to update the Constitution."

[Andrew]

Does that mean Nino is holding on to the deadman switch shouting, "Anthony, Sandra! Nothing tricky now. You know I'm on top of you! DO NOT attempt to grow a brain!"

[Andrew Case]

Schumer's comment is silly, but polital-communication types would defend it from being unfounded.

By using mealy language like "reverse much of" what Parks and "so many others" fought for, he can claim that what he's really talking about is affirmative action, while firing up his base.

It's unfortunately all too common for politicians and spokespeople to tread this kind of line, but Schumer shouldn't be called out on the merits.