TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday the scene at President Obama's State of the Union address was "very troubling" and the annual speech has "degenerated to a political pep rally."
Obama chided the court, with the justices seated before him in their black robes, for its decision on a campaign finance case.
Responding to a University of Alabama law student's question, Roberts said anyone was free to criticize the court, and some have an obligation to do so because of their positions.
"So I have no problems with that," he said. "On the other hand, there is the issue of the setting, the circumstances and the decorum.
"The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court — according the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling."
Breaking from tradition, Obama criticized the court's decision that allows corporations and unions to freely spend money to run political ads for or against specific candidates.
"With all due deference to the separation of powers the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections," Obama said in January.
Justice Samuel Alito was the only justice to respond at the time, shaking his head and mouthing the words "not true" as Obama continued.
Roberts told the students he wonders whether justices should attend the speeches.
"I'm not sure why we're there," said Roberts, a Republican nominee who joined the court in 2005.
Justice Antonin Scalia once said he no longer goes to the annual speech because the justices "sit there like bumps on a log" in an otherwise highly partisan atmosphere. Six of the nine justices attended Obama's address.
Roberts opened his appearance in Alabama with a 30-minute lecture on the history of the Supreme Court and became animated as he answered students' questions. He joked about a recent rumor that he was stepping down from the court and said he didn't know he wanted to be a lawyer until he was in law school.
Asked about the Senate's method of confirming new justices, Roberts said senators improperly try to make political points by asking questions they know nominees can't answer because of the limitations of judicial ethic rules.
"I think the process is broken down," said Roberts.
While Associate Justice Clarence Thomas told students at Alabama last fall he saw little value in oral arguments before the court, Roberts disagreed.
"Maybe it's because I participated in it a lot as a lawyer," Roberts said. "I'd hate to think it didn't matter."
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In the very body sworn to protect and defend the Constitution, an e-mail is circulating warning U.S. Senate staffers not to view one of the most popular news sites on the Web, claiming it could spread computer viruses.
The Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, the chamber's official gatekeeper, said the Drudge Report, a news aggregator, and whitepages.com, a telephone directory site, "are responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate," according to an e-mail from the Environment and Public Works Committee obtained by FoxNews.com.
Who knows what is going to happen in the next few days but the note below is rather ominous for the President....he wants this done by March 18..but???
From: Turner, Trish
Sent: Tue Mar 09 **
Subject: FOXWIRE: MESSAGE TO RAHM: NO DEADLINES ON HEALTHCARE, PLEASE
BY TRISH TURNER
After about an hour and a half-long meeting with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on health care reform, Congressional Democratic leaders emerged to say the following message was sent to the senior Administration adviser: deadlines are not helpful.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs reiterated Tuesday that the President wants the House to pass the Senate bill by March 18, ahead of Obama's trip to Indonesia and Australia, but virtually no deadline has yet been met in more than a year of dealing with health care legislation, and Democratic senators to a letter have fled from those coming from the White House now.
“Congressional Democrats have come to see such markers as more of a problem than a motivator, but the White House hasn’t seemed to digest that,” said one senior Democratic strategist with knowledge of the health care talks.
A senior Senate Democratic leadership aide said, "The message to Rahm was clear and simple: Stop."
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-ND, told reporters, "I've said for years, any talk of deadlines is an absolute waste of time...Deadlines just don't work, because you have so much that is out of your control."
One of the biggest obstacles to meeting deadlines in the entire health care debate has been the unpredictable nature of analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which is due to give Congressional Democratic leaders on Wednesday partial, preliminary estimates on pieces of reconciliation legislation.
Already another senior Senate Democratic leadership aide said the analysis could slip to Thursday.
"They have everything for the moment (on reconciliation legislation), but look, it's an iterative process. They come back and give you initial scores, and then you see there's a gap or you see something needs to be addressed, or you see something new needs to go to them," Conrad said of the nonpartisan congressional budget analysts.
And no one knows better how deadlines can slip than Sen. Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-MT, who led closed-door, bipartisan compromise talks for weeks last year which yielded no compromise as he was pushed to move to committee consideration of legislation; who produced a bill that got one Republican vote only to see it lost during floor consideration in December, partially because that Republican, Olympia Snowe of Maine, didn't like what she called "arbitrary deadlines" for completion of the bill.
"We all agreed, all of us in the room agreed we have to move as expeditiously as we can, but there are a lot of hoops, a lot of hurdles, a lot of matters we have to deal with. But we all want to do it together," Baucus told reporters as he left the meeting in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office.
"We all want to work as quickly as we can without setting a deadline," Baucus added.
Earlier today, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-MD, said, "None of us has mentioned the 18th other than Mr. Gibbs," Hoyer said. "We are trying to do this as soon as possible. That continues to be our objective."
And though there is a considerable trust deficit between House and Senate Democrats on the health care endgame, Baucus said, "There was no bitterness (in the meeting). There was no acrimony."
I am not sure how much more we need to know (the answer is none) -- but this book may captivate many. I have not read it but it hit bookstores today. (And to think I knew Governor Spitzer when he was a guest (just a lawyer....) on CNN's Burden of Proof in the mid 1990's. It never occurred to me at the time that he would end up the Governor of New York, but once there, I never dreamed he would disappoint so many. )
Subject: Urgent: Stupak says there is no deal on abortion
Per Pergram-Capitol Hill
· There is some reporting out there that Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) may be close to a deal with the Democratic leadership on health care and abortion. Today, Stupak’s spokeswoman Michelle Begnoche knockled that down.
“Congressman Stupak has not reached an agreement on abortion funding in the health care legislation. Last Thursday, the Congressman had meaningful discussions with Chairman Waxman and Majority Leader Hoyer. Congressman Stupak expects further meetings this week and remains optimistic that language can be worked out.”
Check out this email from my FNC colleague Trish Turner:
From: Turner, Trish
Sent: Tue Mar 09 ***
Subject: Urgent- Sen Finance Chair Says NO Deadlines
Per turner-
(Off cam)
Sen Finance Cmte Chairman calls the White House Mar 18 deadline for House passage of healthcare
"a steep climb."
"I don't want to give dates," Baucus said, "All I know is deadlines are generally more of a problem than an opportunity."
Baucus said right now, Dems on both sides of Congress are working on their trust deficit. "There's considerable mistrust," Baucus said, but he added that that's nothing unusual.
He and fellow Senate Dem leaders are to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi later today (5p-ish) in her suite of offices.
