Something I missed...

One of the important things that happened last week that I neglected to blog about last week was Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement. Strange that Arizona should have 2 justices with such strong connections - both O'Connor and Rehnquist are from AZ. Coincidentally, they also went to Stanford together. One of the perks of going to law school there is that you get some of the super-secret downlow gossip... Apparently, the word is that Rehnquist and the then Ms. Day used to date. Who'd have guessed?

Of course, we've been waiting for a resignation... the big surprise was that it was O'Connor and not Rehnquist. What has followed has been one of my biggest pet peeves as of late... hysterical reactionary politics. I've received 20 e-mails from various groups screaming for money because OMG, the world will absolutely end if I don't. The calls are coming from both ends of the political spectrum and they're the same Chicken Little cry that we've heard for a while... "This is the most important battle we've ever faced... we can't afford to lose... must send money or the world as we know it will end..." My God, we have a crisis every freaking week, it seems.

Now, that's not to say that the Supreme Court isn't very important. Of COURSE it is. The rhetoric on the left is that Bush will finally hand the far-right everything they've always dreamed of... overturning Roe v. Wade, affirmative action rollbacks, etc. The reality is that this is a political minefield... just think of Bush's post-election talk about spending his political capital on revamping Social Security. That's gone over OH so well. I guess my point is that its hardly a clear picture of how this will turn out. Its time to quit the hysteria we've had from both sides.