Will: Lieberman?s Office Says He Was ?Wrong? To Vote Against Alito In ?06
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on August 18th, 2008 4:37 am by HL
Will: Lieberman?s Office Says He Was ?Wrong? To Vote Against Alito In ?06
Earlier this week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said he wouldn’t rule someone out as a potential vice presidential running mate just because they are pro-choice. On ABC’s This Week today, former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson called Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) “the best of the pro-choice candidates,” but added that it would be “a major problem” […]
Earlier this week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said he wouldn’t rule someone out as a potential vice presidential running mate just because they are pro-choice. On ABC’s This Week today, former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson called Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) “the best of the pro-choice candidates,” but added that it would be “a major problem” that Lieberman had voted against Samuel Alito’s Supreme Court nomination.
Conservative columnist George Will then broke in, saying that Lieberman’s office told him this week Lieberman now believes “he was wrong” to have voted against Alito and that “now he likes Alito”:
WILL: Well, I called Lieberman’s office this week and said, “why did your man vote against Alito?” And they said, “he was wrong, now he likes Alito.”
STEPHANOPOLOUS: Did they really say he was wrong? That the vote was wrong?
WILL: He said that now that having seen Alito in action.
Watch it:
In January 2006, when Lieberman voted against confirming Alito, he issued a statement saying that he was “left with just too many doubts” about Alito’s “judicial philosophy.” As an example of why he was voting against him, Lieberman pointed to Alito’s record on “equal opportunity and fair treatment“:
For example, in civil rights cases, Judge Alito has repeatedly established a very high bar, an unusually high bar, for entrance to our Courts for people who believed they’ve been denied equal opportunity and fair treatment based on race or gender.
In light of his stated reasons for opposing Alito, it is confusing as to why Lieberman now believes he “was wrong,” considering how Alito has voted since joining the court. For instance, Alito wrote the majority opinion in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire Co., which “made it harder for many workers to sue their employers for discrimination in pay.”
