Giving
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer an unusual evening newscast
platform to plug a book, on Monday's NBC Nightly News anchor Brian
Williams brought viewers back to the Left's ten-year-old grudge, cuing
up Breyer to agree:
"Do you think Bush v Gore hurt the credibility of the modern court?" Breyer replied with a simple "yes" and Williams suggested:
"Irreparably?" "No," Breyer said in rejecting Williams' overwrought premise, so Williams pressed:
"For how long?"
Williams introduced the September 13 segment by marveling:
We can't remember a sitting justice on the U.S. Supreme
Court ever stopping by our studios here, but it happened today. We spent
some time with Justice Stephen Breyer, appointed by President Clinton
and residing on the liberal side of the court. Justice Breyer is out
with a new book today. It's about how the court works, including
mistakes the court has made over the years. I started out by asking
Justice Breyer, given his love of the Supreme Court, if he's concerned
that just one percent of those Americans polled, in a recent survey,
knew his name?
That book:
Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View.
The second topic raised by Williams:
WILLIAMS: Do you think Bush v Gore hurt the credibility of the modern court?
BREYER: Yes.
WILLIAMS: Irreparably?
BREYER: No.
WILLIAMS: For how long?
BREYER: I don't know. That's up to historians. I thought that the
decision - I was in dissent. I obviously thought the majority was
wrong. But I've heard Harry Reid, I heard him say this, and I agree with
it completely, he said the most remarkable thing about that case, Bush
versus Gore, is something hardly anyone remarks. And that remarkable
thing is even though more than half the public strongly disagreed with
it, thought it was really wrong, they followed it. And the alternative,
using guns, having revolutions in the street, is a worse alternative.
WILLIAMS: To a new area, academic social elitism on the court. What
would be your view of bringing in - Presidents appointing justices who
went to a couple of state law schools?
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
