HYPOCRISY, THAT GREAT VALUE

We have just had more evidence, as if it were needed, that hypocrisy is one of the prime conservative values. It keeps taking its place along with a handful of others such as love of privilege, heartlessness, and hatred of what America stands for (such as personal freedom, democracy, and equal opportunity) by those who are violently "for" America.

Hypocrisy has winked at us from politicians who would subjugate women and gays in the name of Traditional Family Values while taking a "wide stance" in men's rooms or paying off a mistress's hubby or "hiking the Appalachian Trail" to a gal pal in Buenos Aires. But it is good to see that it isn't confined to he-he and he-she hanky panky.

Texas' GOP Senator John Cornyn, a silver-haired cipher who looks and thinks like a corporate exec, has weighed in on President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan for a seat on the Supreme Court, saying, among other things: "Ms. Kagan is...a surprising choice because she lacks judicial experience. Most Americans believe that prior judicial experience is a necessary credential for a Supreme Court Justice." Presumably Cornyn agrees with "most Americans" or he would not cite this.

But this is John Cornyn as of five years ago: "I mean, one reason I felt so strongly about Harriet Miers's qualifications is I thought she would fill some very important gaps in the Supreme Court. Because right now you have people who've been federal judges, circuit judges most of their lives, or academicians. And what you see is a lack of grounding in reality and common sense that I think would be very beneficial." (The quotes are compliments of Salon.com)

Miers, who had to withdraw as a nominee because too controversial and too obviously lacking in qualifications, seems an odd person to praise for common sense. But you get the picture.

Cornyn's partisan double standard is plain. If Dubya wants someone from outside the judiciary for the Court, he's a statesman. If Obama does, he's trying to stick us with some underachiever.

If you think that Cornyn left himself a figleaf in '05 when he cited "academicians" (of which Kagan has been one) along with judges as those overly represented on the Court, consider that his present statement about prior judicial experience being "necessary" still nails him.

Probably Cornyn will end up voting to confirm Kagan. A liberal president who won a clear mandate is not going to nominate a conservative, and the seat should not remain vacant. And, while fairness and consistency clearly mean nothing to him, he and other Republicultists have to worry a little that too much negativity, along with offering nothing constructive ever, may begin to wear on an electorate that is down on politicians these days anyway.

For one day both of John Cornyn's faces will face the voters again. And in the meanwhile, the eyes of Texas are upon him.