CORPORATISM - LOOKING GLASS NEWS
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Is That a Pool Cue in Corporate America's Pocket, or Are They Just Excited About the Supreme Court?
by David Sirota    The Huffington Post
Entered into the database on Saturday, July 02nd, 2005 @ 15:56:01 MST


 

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You can just imagine it, can't you - a group of sweaty, cigar-smoking executives and lobbyists are right now sitting around a mahogany conference table somewhere on K Street rubbing their greasy palms together and plotting how to make sure that just the right corporate hack will replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. You can almost hear their pulses accelerating and their hormones flowing - the prospect of putting one of their own on the Supreme Court is exactly what arouses these guys and exactly what they fantasize about when the lights shut off in their mansions at night.

Now it's true - the media will make this whole story about the Religious Right vs. Evil Secular Liberals. But behind the curtains in a dark little peep-show-like room, Corporate America will be busy lubing up the process and panting with glee as they take over our judiciary.

Surprised that this is what's really going on? Think I am making this up? Not so - read Big Business's paper of record, the Wall Street Journal, to get the real story. There you will find a story about how Corporate America is already scheming. Here are some of the excerpts:

Business cases, many concerning the reach of regulation and interaction of state and federal governments, consume a large chunk of the Supreme Court's docket. Now for the first time, the National Association of Manufacturers, which represents big corporations, is creating a committee of executives to screen the business rulings of prospective nominees...Two lower-court judges have drawn interest in corporate circles because they represented companies on regulatory matters before going on the federal bench: John Roberts of the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals and Michael McConnell of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver...

John Engler [head of the National Association of Manufacturers] began making the rounds in Washington, pitching a new corporate activism on judicial nominations. He informed the offices of the White House counsel and political adviser Karl Rove about his plans. He met privately with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and other top Republicans...This month, as speculation heightened about Mr. Rehnquist's possible resignation, Mr. Engler and his executive committee approved a creation of an endorsement process for Supreme Court nominees. A new committee of executives will vet any White House nominee based on his or her business rulings.

None of this should be a shock - as I have written before, the media regularly misses the real story about how Big Money runs the show in Washington, D.C. Reporters seem to prefer the fake storyline of "conservative" vs. "liberal" as opposed to the real storyline of "Big Money" vs. "Ordinary Americans." That's what this fight is ultimately going to be about, and Corporate America is going to thrust itself into the middle of this, ramming millions of dollars into the process to make sure they get the climax they want - a Justice they can be in bed with whenever they desire, and that will perform whatever dirty little favors Big Business says. Our side had better be ready to expose their scheme - and counter it with our own fight.