9-17-90 Monday. The Senate confirmation hearings continued today. This evening I tuned in C-SPAN to watch a tape of the day’s proceedings. One of the questioners of David Souter was New Hampshire senator Gordon Humphrey, who, if anyone fits the description, is a single-issue politician. Humphrey’s issue is abortion, so naturally he devoted all of his time to questioning Souter on the subject. Souter answered some of Humphrey’s questions in generalities, but more often than not he declined to answer on grounds that “an abortion case is almost certainly to come before the court”. That, he implied, would compromise his judgment. Humphrey wasn’t all that interested in Souter’s views, anyway. He wanted to make his own views known. Time after time he referred to “unborn babies”—never “fetuses”—being “slaughtered” or “cut up” in the “wombs” by their “mothers”. He kept trying to set up syllogisms for Souter so that the judge would draw the desired conclusion. “Are all persons protected by the Fourteenth Amendment?”, Humphrey asked. Souter said “Yes”. Later, Humphrey asked Souter whether there’s a difference between a human being and a person. Souter responded that in most contexts, there is no point in drawing such a distinction. What Humphrey wanted, of course, was for him to say “No”, from which it would follow that all fetuses are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. It went on like this for a good thirty minutes. I think Humphrey has announced that he will not seek reelection, to which I say “Good riddance”. The man is a maniac, a certified loon.
Note from KBJ: Isn't it interesting that when I was a progressive, I resorted to name-calling, including imputations of lunacy? Progressives have a cognitive defect; they literally cannot understand how anyone could have different beliefs or values than they do. If you don't agree with progressives, you're not merely wrong; you're crazy.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 