Who heckled Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Pt. II; Update: Sanders confirms
Scroll for update…Sanders confirms…
Over the weekend, I wrote about Washington state Supreme Court justice Richard Sanders, an old friend of mine from my days in Seattle who had been identified on Friday by lawyer Wendy Long as the man who heckled Attorney General Michael Mukasey during his Federalist Society address.
I received the following non-response response from Justice Sanders last night:
Dear Michelle,
I just returned to the office to find your e-mail and read your column. You might check the Federalist Society web site for a video of the speech. www.fed-soc.org
It does not appear General Mukasey heard anything from the audience except applause. I had personally left the dinner long before he collapsed and first knew of it watching the news from my hotel room the next morning. I respect you and the General. I’m glad he recovered. You are both doing your job in a way both of you sincerely believe is correct…
The question isn’t whether Mukasey heard the heckling or whether Sanders witnessed Mukasey’s collapse, but whether Justice Sanders was the one who shouted “Tyrant. You are a tyrant!” at the Attorney General.
I wrote back:
I understand that you left the dinner before Mukasey collapsed and that you believe that he may not have heard the heckling. But my question is whether you were the heckler. Is this a yes?
The question still has not been answered. And it seems to me that this dodging is, well, injudicious.
Since my post on Saturday, several MSM outlets have also contacted Sanders for comment. The Olympian mistakenly reports: “State justice says he wasn’t at Mukasey’s speech.” Which is not what he wrote to me in his e-mail, nor what he told the Wall Street Journal:
The Law Blog on Monday caught up with the 63-year-old Sanders (pictured, right). Sanders didn’t confirm that he was the one who shouted at Mukasey, but didn’t deny it, either. He said he had “no comment except to say that having reviewed the video of the speech” on the Federalist Society’s web site, “it doesn’t appear that whatever was said was heard by [Attorney] General Mukasey. I left the dinner before the General unfortunately collapsed.” He added that “in my mind a heckler is someone who is making repeated comments audible to the speaker [and] you’ll see that that just didn’t happen.”
The Law Blog watched the video and 17 minutes, 30 seconds into it, the heckler’s voice is clearly heard and Mukasey glances in his direction before resuming the speech.
When asked why he left the room in the middle of Mukasey’s speech, Sanders told us he simply “wanted to go to my [hotel] room.”
Did he or didn’t he?
What is up with that depends-on-the-meaning-of-heckler b.s.? Geez.
James Taranto was at the dinner and noted yesterday that the heckling came from the same table where Sanders was assigned.
A writer at The Olympian has accepted Sanders’ spin (also echoed by the ABA Journal) and is now casting me as a reckless “rumor”-monger — despite the fact that Sanders refuses to comment on whether he was the heckler:
Although the rumor that Washington State Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders heckled U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey just before he collapsed is making its rounds on the blogosphere, Sanders says that’s bunk.
Mukasey is back at work, but Michelle Malkin appears to have started the Sanders speculation with her article “Who Heckled Attorney General Michael Mukasey?”
…I talked to Sanders today, and he said he was at the gathering of the Federalist Society at which Mukasey collapsed mid-speech (he was released from a hospital and returned to work). But Sanders said he went back to his hotel before Mukasey spoke.
I asked him specifically about Malkin’s suggestion that he heckled Mukasey.
“As to that, I don’t have any comment. But I wasn’t there when he collapsed. I heard it on television the next morning, I was very sorry to hear it,” Sanders said.
“I wasn’t there when he collapsed” does not equal “I didn’t heckle Mukasey.”
“If Mukasey didn’t hear the heckle, it’s not a heckle” does not equal “I didn’t heckle Mukasey.”
To be clear: I don’t think this is a massive scandal. But I would like to know the truth and I think people in Washington state deserve to know it, too. Sanders earned my deepest respect as I covered his pro-life, pro-liberty stands. When he was unfairly accused of judicial misconduct in the past, I said so. And if I think he violated the spirit of the code of judicial conduct at the Federalist Society dinner, I will say so, too.
A sitting judge acting like an unhinged Code Pink protester would certainly seem to cross the line.
Moreover, dancing around a simple factual question now is, at the very least, annoying. And unseemly.
***
Update: Finally, the truth. Here’s a statement Justice Sanders e-mailed me this evening…
I want to set the record straight about a dinner I attended on November 20, in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Federalist Society — a conservative and libertarian legal group of which I am a member. Attorney General Michael Mukasey was the keynote speaker.
In his speech, Attorney General Mukasey justified the Bush administration’s policies in the War on Terror, which included denying meaningful hearings for prisoners in Guantanamo, and other questionable tactics, all in the name of national security. Mr. Mukasey said those who criticize the Administration for abandoning provisions of the Geneva Conventions fail to recognize that “… Al Qaeda [is] an international terrorist group, and not, the last time I checked, a signatory to the Conventions.” Although the United States is a signatory, and these Conventions prohibit torture, the audience laughed. Attorney General Mukasey received a standing ovation. I passionately disagree with these views: the government must never set aside the Constitution; domestic and international law forbids torture; and access to the writ of habeas corpus should not be denied.
The program provided no opportunity for questions or response, and I felt compelled to speak out. I stood up, and said, “tyrant,” and then left the meeting. No one else said anything. I believe we must speak our conscience in moments that demand it, even if we are but one voice.
I hope those who know my jurisprudence will agree that to truly love the Constitution is to uphold it, to speak out for it, not just in times of peace and prosperity, but also in times of chaos and crisis.
I did not “heckle” Attorney General Mukasey, and I did not disrupt the meeting, as those who watch the video of his speech on the Federalist Society’s website will discover. I left before Mr. Mukasey had his frightening collapse. I learned of his collapse later, from news reports. It should go without saying that, despite our vastly different views on what constitutes upholding the rule of law, I hope he continues to recover and remain in good health.
Update: Sanders is shocked, shocked that anyone paid attention to his outburst:
In the initial days after the event, Sanders, when questioned by other reporters, danced around whether he was the person who shouted at Mukasey. He wouldn’t confirm it, nor would he deny it.
But on Tuesday, Sanders told The Seattle Times that he’d simply reached the point where he couldn’t remain silent.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine there would be any mention of this in the press,” he said. “But here we are.”
The state’s Code of Judicial Conduct requires judges to be “dignified” toward those they deal with “in their official capacity.”
Asked if his outburst might violate that code, Sanders said: “Well, it’s so open-ended and vague, maybe someone would think that it could apply. I don’t know. I think it’s a free-speech activity. In my mind this had nothing to do with my role as a judge.”
It has everything to do, though, with jeopardizing his public appearance as a dignified, temperate representative of Washington state’s courts.
More:
Asked if it was dignified, Sanders said: “I think it was an impulse. … At that particular time, I didn’t have a chance to reflect on it. I didn’t plan it out in advance. It just happened.”
He left before Mukasey’s speech was finished, Sanders said, because “I wasn’t enjoying myself.”
Sanders said he wouldn’t call what he did heckling. Afterward, he said, he heard from a number of people — some supportive, others not. “Some people think it was the wrong thing to do,” he said. “To other people, it was heroic.”
Sanders said he now regrets what he did: “If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t.”
Alternatively, he wishes he had said “Tyranny” instead of “Tyrant,” “because in my mind, these policies can lead to tyranny.”
Needless to say, I’m hugely disappointed. I have few enough heroes in public office as it is. Now, I have one less.
***
Commenter Skeptic: “What he did was rude. His outburst and subsequent storming out of the talk were the actions of a egotistical boor. How would he like someone to act the same in his courtroom? My guess is he wouldn’t. An apology for what he did would be appropriate. He should publicly apologize to Attorney General Mukasey and then ask the voters of the State of Washington to forgive him.”
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All this dodging makes it seem pretty obvious that he was the one who did it…good for you Michelle for following up on this regardless of your personal relationship with him.
Tough times expose character, both the good and the bad, in us all.
This Judge appears to have caved to even simple peer pressure some time ago–you remember JHS. If I’m right, he’ll soon be screaming that you’re persecuting him.
Look on the bright side. At least he wasn’t a family member or close friend who let you down.
Shouldn’t judges do their best to not parse words? “Depends on your definition…” blah, blah, blah Yes, it sounds like he is indeed the one who heckled Mukasey — and I don’t give a rat’s you-know-what how he defines heckler. If he indeed did not shout at the stage, he has had plenty of opportunities to state that he did not shout at the stage! It seems he cannot make that assertion, and rather than lie about it, he will simply continue to dodge. Sad, really. Probably very sad for you, MM. Sounds like someone you looked up to.
pssst… Michelle. Something’s wrong with the comment box. Tag buttons are gone, and Preview doesn’t work.
Hmm. Looks like it’s working for me. Anyone else having problems?
James Taranto, who attended the dinner, provides additional information.
Kudos to you for questioning a friend as you would an adversary.
They used to call the media - 4th Estate. If only they follow your example in searching for the Truth, that would be the day our Country will prosper.
Best.
Comments and preview working for me.
hmmmm… I tried logging out and back in, but it is still not working. Must just be me for some reason! Sorry MM.
This justice recognizes the tyranny of the federal government. He admires and defends states rights and the Constitution. We need more like him.
He sounds like a typical politician, parsing every word that could be used against them…reminiscent of Bubba and his “is”, “is”…lying bastards all. Do they go to school to learn those techniques?
Not necessarily knocking your friend MM, but people do change and not always for the best. It’s obvious to most honest people, an admission of guilt or innocence would be appropriate, not parsing words as to where he was when the AG collapsed.
You should test it out with another browser, Lan. It sounds like, for some reason, your current browser stopped “rendering” some webpages & forms correctly.
It is a sad day when a judge acts like a petulant child and then tries to cover his conduct up by playing a word game. Sort of reminds me of Bill Clinton and his definitions of “sex” etc.
Thank you Michelle
Please report the good and bad of all those in positions of power.
Let me be clear…(shaking fist at camera) I…did…not…heckle that man, Michael Mukasey.
Come on, Michelle. He’s in Dodge City mode. And he’s being at best disingenuous, at worst, fraudulent.
It’s sad that Justice Sanders seems to be weaseling around the incident. If he did it, the heckling was bad enough - to not be man enough to own up to doing it just makes it worse.
Great follow up Michelle.
In my mind, word-crafting, like the above comment are disingenuous and evasive.
While Wikipedia is hardly the last word, this topic sentence of its “heckler” entry tends to confirm the reality that one uttered “heckle” makes one a heckler.
I wonder why Sanders thinks Mukasey is a tyrant? I seem to be missing something. Does anyone have the background and care to speculate? It is too bad Sanders doesn’t just come out and say he said it, so we can ask him why.
The comment window is working fine for me Michelle.
Depends on what the definition of “is” is.
At least he can get a job speechwriting for an ex Prez.
Harry Truman said, “If you can’t take the heat stay out of the kitchen!”
***
He was right–once a person enters public or political life they are going to get hit (figuratively speaking) with insults, lies, racial slurs, etc.–note how nicely the losers talk about Michelle Malkin. Sometimes they are going to get hit (physically speaking) by pies (Ann Coulter–almost), real bricks, etc.
***
We should respect each other–even though we disagree with each other. Verbal assaults are part of the game.
John Bibb
Um, read the post:
I’m guessing he threw out the shout AS he was leaving to go to his room… after hearing something that pissed him off. At what point in the speech was the heckle?
Sorry, the Fourth Estate was a subprime that was foreclosed and was auctioned off to the Democratic Party.
Ah, brings back memories. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman!”
Exactly! Kinda like, “If a tree falls in the woods and there’s nobody around to hear it, does it still make a sound?”
A felled tree is still a felled tree, whether someone heard it fall or not.
Now the Drive By Media is nothing more than the 4th branch of government. That is, when they aren’t chasing cheap, tawdry entertainment news.
It seems as if the quote can be attributed to him. The decibel level of the quote seems to be the only question now.
He probably wouldn’t argue that a significant portion of the audience heard it.
The question is whether or not Sanders will call Obama’s AG a tyrant if Holder doesn’t immediately and proactively cease all “tyrannical” government activities?
Then the Democrats took the “Fourth Estate” and turned it into the “Fifth Column”.
No, the correct question is whether anyone who questions Dear Leader or His Apostles will be sent to the gulag for their crimes against the state? Even if they aren’t, they will surely be labeled “racist” by the sycophantic Treason Media because there is no reason why Obama or Holder would be criticized other than racism.
“Fourth Estate” now a laughing stock.
Nah. I have to disagree. I can’t see Obama counter-attacking Code Pink, etc. when they, inevitably, begin to criticize him.
Here is the long and short of this. Michelle, you defended the man with a caveat on his past behavior that you admired.
Now he has hung you out to dry and allowed you to be labeled as a rumor monger by semi denial of his participation
in the collapse, but not the outburst.
Evidently he has little regard for you since he won’t call and level to you about what really happened.
My gut tells me it was him, and he is no longer the man you once knew!
I am sure you have been called worse than “rumor monger” before and since it isn’t true it is sure to boost your rank up next year on the Ben Cohen hate list!
He evaded and triangulated - tactics not generally utlized by honest people. And its just not cool.
Anyone who would never act so childishly would instantly deny the suggestion that he/she did in no uncertain terms.
Enough said.
Sanders admits to heckling.
He’s now admitting it openly. Must be a better tape!
He did it, or he would’ve categorically denied doing so. He’s guilty by (lack of) virtue of his own words.
What a lying turd. He says something bad to someone and then doesn’t have the integrity to admit doing so.
I guess it’s a moot point now…
Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive
It worsens when we bob and weave.
Michelle:
Seriously, i regularly agree with you but this is silly. The guy did something slightly uncool. I say stupid stuff all the time that I regret. It’s one word, one single word. As far as being a wuss about it and replying lawyerly - ok, that’s definitely uncool but even then, it’s still understandable.
If a hero of mine did the same thing, they’d still be my hero. If you did the same thing, you’d still be a hero. Not saying that I’m right and you’re wrong, but I’m having trouble seeing the wrong here.
I love how libs redefine their behavior as Sanders and Bill Ayers have done when it suits them.
But wait Sanders was supposed to be a libertarian…perhaps conservatives linking up with libertarians was a bad idea? They seem to me to be ‘loose cannons’ for other than Neal Boortz.
Wanna bet someone sitting near Sanders finally fessed up about who shouted, and like Bill Clinton, “plausible deniability” was no longer a viable option, so Sanders sucked in his gut and said it was merely a spur-of-the-moment outburst he’s now sorry he made. Yeah, sure. Like a sheriff’s deputy friend of mine told me: “The prisons are full of people who are “sorry.” Sorry they got nabbed.”
Michelle, thanks for sticking to your principles.
With Sander’s lack of an apology for his heckling he displays a total lack of basic common manners. “Shame” needs to make a bigtime comeback.
Thanks for staying on top of stories like this, Michelle.
It’s good to know that a few real journalists are still doing they’re job in this country.
It is sad when those we admire disappoint us so publicly. We must try to forgive and forget, but it is easier said than done. I know.
I believe President Bush and his team handling the captured enemy combatants have done a stellar job. We were fortunate to have such a leader in the right place at the right time.
However, if our War on Terror were run by well meaning people like Washington state Supreme Court justice Richard Sanders I fear we would be mourning many thousand more slaughtered neighbors.
This has to be the worst article I have ever read. Someone “heckling” someone. Is that so important?
Not at all.
Zorro:
You mean the POW’s who aren’t being treated like POW’s?
Don’t give up so easily on your friend, Michelle.
Legal scholars differ on the issue, even though you and I see it quite clearly a different way.
He can be wrong without being a bad fellow. Still your friend in other respects.
What troubles me is that a judge was at a political event at all.
Where I practice in NJ, that would be an ethics violation for being involved in political activity. A strict no-no here for judges.
Maybe it’s different where he is.
Concerts, plays and movies have the same problem. I wonder if Hon. Dick Sanders feels the need to scream at those events, as well.
That’s too bad, Michelle. But remember, he didn’t heckle…he just spoke his conscience
This whole “uphold the Constitution” rant by these nitwits gets rather old when they snivel about wanting it to apply to foreign terrorists.
Quite often these are the same people who have no problem with it being ignored and violated in so many other ways every day.
Yes, here we are. And never in my wildest dreams did I imagine a judge to behave in such a disrespectful way towards our AG.
Though, JR, the issue at hand here is his inexcusable behavior in having a disruptive public temper tantrum that may have had a very dangerous impact on someone else.
You have to remember, too, that some people start out well but they do not finish well. Good apples take time to go bad. It’s sad, but it happens all too often.
Sanders was right to condemn what Mukasey was attempting to justify. Torture should never be carried out or condoned by the United States-ever, and conservatives should be the loudest in denouncing the practice of it and those who engage in or condone it.
If we truly believe in the principles we espouse the reasons should be obvious.
Where Sanders was wrong was in not plainly admitting his actions to begin with. What he did, as he describes it, if true, is nothing to be ashamed of.
We must purge the courts of judicial scum like heckler Sanders. What a disgrace he brings to high office.
Judge Sanders has shown before that he is intemperate, why he would think that this would not be reported is rather perplexing.
What he did was rude. His outburst and subsequent storming out of the talk were the actions of a egotistical boor. How would he like someone to act the same in his courtroom? My guess is he wouldn’t.
An apology for what he did would be appropriate. He should publicly apologize to Attorney General Mukasey and then ask the voters of the State of Washington to forgive him.
The stopping of numerous plans of attacks on American citizens is reason enough for me. More water-boarding, I say!! As long as it doesn’t interrupt the terrorist’s Game Boys, Art Classes and Movie Nights, of course.
This line is also getting old…as if our military is too incompetent to provide a proper hearing for these poor little jihadi’s, that only some properly anointed lawyer and and civilian judge knows what is best.
Pffft.
The problem with this line of reasoning is having to accept the left wing definition of torture.
What’s next? Claiming torture because they don’t get fresh batteries for their Gameboy’s twice a week?
Dear Justice Richard Sanders;
How many German and Japanese prisoners of war had access to the writ of habeas corpus during WWII?
{Crickets chirping}
Thought so.
Learn it. Know it. Live it.
I don’t agree that the non-combatant terrorists are in the same league with others on this planet.
Kinda like a fart.
Sanders is rude and immature. And a moron to boot.
We have never had a President who, during a time of war, did LESS to restrict civil liberties than George W Bush.
When you’re a justice, you must act like one, no matter WHERE you go, not like a Berkeley idiot.
So he did it…what do you think would be his reaction to one of us yelling the same thing in his courtroom?
As a Washington State (Yakima) resident and voter, I will wait to forgive Sanders until after I see/hear/read his public apology. Saying ” . . . he now regrets what he did: “If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t.” does not constitute a public apology to me. If he runs for reelection in 2010, I will remember his Clintonesque parsing and votes for Sanders among my family and friends would be sparse.
Really? Do tell us which of your personal civil liberties have been restricted.
I’m pretty sure I already know the answer…
No, we don’t have to accept the left’s definition of torture, and I don’t; but I know what torture is and torture is the official policy of the Bush administration. It has nothing to do with batteries for Gameboys.
Conservatives who advocate torture have abandoned principle for unbridled revenge and are aiding the growth of government in it’s most virulent and dangerous form. We’re fighting utterly barbaric monsters but we don’t have to become barbarians to defeat them. The only thing torture does is pull the country down to the moral equivalence of our enemies and endanger us. For our own protection, if nothing else, we must condemn torture as policy. If we allow it to be used against our enemies it will come to be used in our criminal justice system. After all, criminals endanger our society, and that is the rationale for its use against the jihadists. As the old saying goes, “For my own protection I would demand a fair trial for the devil himself.” As a conservative I am adamantly opposed to unlimited, unrestrained government power. Permitting the government to have a policy of torture removes all restraint like nothing else can. The ticking bomb scenario is a red herring made popular by propaganda like the TV show “24″. Torture is also notoriously unreliable as an information gathering tool. People being tortured will tell their interrogators whatever they think they want to hear to stop the pain. Whether it’s true or not is irrelevent.
Part of the problem is that in the Terror War we have our troops “arresting suspects” therefor making them subject to the criminal justice system. We need to be “capturing enemy soldiers” and holding them as prisoners of war until the cessation of hostilities. That makes arguments for charges and trials moot.
Somehow I think you’re blowing this out of proportion, Michelle. Yeah, he shouldn’t have done it, but does that mean that this guy, who you described as a hero of yours, is no longer that simply because he gave in to a fit of pique and embarrassed himself?
It’s hard to believe that you would allow this one indiscretion to unbalance everything else you value about the man.
I agree, SGT Jack. (Call me LT Miles, heh.) Michelle is blowing this out of proportion. Justice Sanders seems to have quite a record of jurisprudence. You actually seem to be engaging in some faded yellow journalism: this would not be news if Mr. Mukasey had not collapsed. Justice Sanders’s comment, heckling or otherwise, has no bearing on Mr. Mukasey’s health problems, and, perhaps more importantly, the Attorney General’s health problems have no bearing on the argument raised by JUstice Sanders (distasteful as you may have found the presentation).
Let’s not resort to the same kind of histrionics as our disingenuous enemies who claim irrelevant characteristics as parts of the argument (she lost her husband in 9/11, her son is in Iraq, he lost a limb in Vietnam, he was a marine, their son is special needs and they need their volvo).
What’s more - I think we ought to maintain the healthy strain of distrust of government power. This is not the same as tying our own hands when it comes to fighting our enemies.
But let’s not forget that our own enemies have no qualms seizing our property, compelling our labor, and mandating our conscience! We may want to be careful about legal frameworks that may make it easier for them to do this.
Also - I am disgusted by the apology-mongering. If he meant it, he should stand by it. Do you want him to grovel because he may have done something mildly socially odd? Because he used a powerful word against someone with whom he is supposed to be an ally?
I would rather the Justice Sanders’s of the world act like men and be somewhat off-putting, than to have a whole world of mice behaving themselves.
Sanders lives in a dream world. Our nation is at war. War has been declared upon us, and it has been brought here to our sovereign soil multiple times with enormous loss of life and economic destruction.
Sanders is a pitiful fool who places his immature emotions before the greater good of the general population of this great country.
He should resign and go back to chasing ambulances.
The probelm, Sgt, is that this illustrates not just a bad trait, but a trend. As I sez, bad apples all started out as good apples.
The core issue (accidental apple pun, there), as Michelle pointed out, is an unbalanced judge. That he cannot bring himself to personaly apologize to AG Mukasey and is, in fact, attempting to justify his deranged outburst just does not speak well of his character (or lack thereof).
So what you have is a sitting judge who not only throws public temper tantrums but who also hasn’t the guts to man up and take resonsibility for his own actions. Instead he only delivered weaselisms.
I wish you were my president, Michelle.
Justice Sanders does sound like one whinny nit picking coward-a Liberal.
They do have a habit of being Constitutionally aware at the oddest times these Liberals.
First, I sympathize. It is devastating to find out that someone you admire has behaved less than honorably.
However, there is no place for this behavior from a judge. I believe he should resign. He lacks the demeanor and objectivity for the job. The sort of power we entrust to judges and prosecutors demands the highest standards of conduct.
He should resign, or be impeached. I’d say the same thing if he were my dad. A nation that tolerates this will get more of it, and deserve it.
The real issue is Justice Sanders’ own statement; “the government must never set aside the Constitution; domestic and international law forbids torture; and access to the writ of habeas corpus should not be denied”. I’m not a constitutional scholar, so where in the constitution does it state that foreign enemies are legally entitled to a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. courts? Military tribunals have historically maintained legal jurisdiction over enemy combatants. But these aren’t just enemy combatants, they are suicidal and have full intent to return to the battlefield and kill as many as they can before dying. Many that have been released from Gitmo have done just that. Second, the torture question is easy to answer when sitting at a keyboard with morning coffee. However, imagine yourself leader for a day, you have in hand someone with detailed knowledge of pending attack(s) that will maim and kill hundreds. Do you torture to obtain the needed info or do you let the death and destruction occur? Will the fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters of the dead praise you for your constitutional integrity or curse you for letting their loved ones die when you had it in your power to stop their deaths? What good is Justice Sanders’ moral code if it leads to so much death and destruction? I don’t have the answers and I’m glad that Justice Sanders thinks he does. But if any harm comes to me and mine because of the path he has chosen, then curse him and may he rot in hades.
Justice Sanders is not a liberal by any stretch of the definition, save its original meaning.
If he were not a Washington state Supreme Court Justice, this would just be a matter of someone speaking their mind and leaving what they took to be an intolerable monologue.
Unfortunately for Justice Sanders, he doesn’t really have the option to be in “private citizen” mode. I agree with comments about the dignity of the office and such.
But to call this a character flaw? That is patent nonsense.
Justice Sanders will call them as he sees them. He is a defender of the Constitution. This slip in judgment should not take away from his years of service defending the rule of law. In Washington state, he is often the lone voice.
For those of you thinking he’ll somehow fall in line with Obama, well, you apparently don’t know him. While I doubt he’ll yell out “tyrant!” at any more speeches, I do believe that he would get up and leave in a similar situation, no matter the administration.
Justice Sanders is not a fairweather fan of the Constitution and the rule of law. When Obama and his AG overstep the boundaries in the name of social justice, just as Bush and his AG have done in the name of national security, Sanders will behave the same way.
Yeah, he made a mistake by unprofessionally opening his trap. He should be held to a higher standard of behavior, but that’s about as far as this goes. He didn’t cause AG Mukasey to collapse. He owes no one an apology except, maybe, the voters of Washington state.
AG Muskasey has a right to free speech also. Mr Sanders did not listen to his position, does not know all the circumstances of what the detainees go through. Also our schools in inner cities are failing kids by the millions in providing them a good education. What about their constitutional rights? Should they be forced to go to schools that are failing to do their job? Talk about tyranny.
Someone above suggested that Michelle was engaged in “yellow journalism” for expressing the hope that it wasn’t someone she admired whom may have acted in “code pink” fashion. Now that is a pretty lame charge!
Here is yellow journalism–be afraid(cowardly in fact) to ask the president-elect of the the country anything tougher than where the kids will attend school, and what type of doggie they will have!
Real journalists would be asking for F.O.I.A. court orders to answer all the missing records questions, digging into all his organized crime and radical associations, and questioning him on why he is pushing for radical economic programs(national health care,cap & trade, global poverty,) that will destroy our countries capitalism and render us a has been nation!
Actions speak louder than words
Personally after reading about this judge’s improper behaviors in other instances that he has been admonished for, I would not want him to be a judge in a case that involved me, but he would probably be superior to most of the liberal judges seated in this state!
When we have honor students kicked out of their honor society for eating skittles, how is this not far worse?
LOL. Yes, judicial attempts to enable child molestors to harass their spouses definitely aren’t PC-leftist at all:
Wash Court OKs contact ban for non-victim spouse
8-1 ruling, guess who dissented.
As noted, Sanders may have started off on the right track but he got derailed into nutso-land somewhere down the line.
Perhaps you should read his minority opinion in the case instead of taking your sound bites from a newspaper. And if you think the other 8 justices are conservative then you don’t know much about Washington state politics.
MIchelle knows what I mean by yellow journalism. She is ginning up a story that is only a story because it plays on some emotion. Poor man collapsed, and you were sitting there heckling him - for shame, sir, for shame!
It’s histrionics. If all she meant were ‘I prefer individuals to confine their comments to other channels’, that also would not be news of any sort.
I don’t disagree with her right to write about it - she can write about the plight of field mice in especially cold winters, for all I have to say about it. It’s her site. But as an admirer of hers, I would hate for her ot present this as news, and to ignore what may be the positive gems to be found here, which I have written in my previous comment.
Laddie, most everyone who does wrong will offer a rationale by way of an excuse. Sanders did so again here after his decision to go to a conference to heckle the AG of the US like some deranged Code Pink kook. But having a “reason” to do wrong does not make the wrong correct.
Again, this just illustates Sander’s downward spiral, as do things like his BDS inspired “War On Freedom” rants/writings. His boundless self-admiration doesn’t help.
Didn’t say that. Just pointing out the fact Sanders is just as goofy, if not even nuttier, than they. He’s quite obviously at odds with them when it comes to child molesters:
Justice Sanders dissents from decision to disbar child molester
I’m sure he has a rationale for his pattern on the issue.
You are welcome to buy the excuses, as you are for his excuse for heckling. But it’s just unrealistic to expect others to buy into his excuses, too.
Good God, did you read his dissent in this case? Sanders is trying to apply the law as it is written. He is trying to show the profound implications that a decision of activist jurists can have on subsequent judicial decisions. Thank God we record dissent.
Every time a judge chooses to interpret law beyond the specific meaning of the words, nearly everyone who comments around here cries foul. But when a judge takes a dissenting and unpopular view expressly because he is concerned about future “interpretations” of the law, he is considered kooky? Really?
I’m not defending a judge yelling out the word “tyrant”. Personally, I think judges should behave at a level above that. Either he shouldn’t have attended the session or he should have kept his mouth shut and say quietly or he should have left quietly. But to impugn his judgment from the bench based on some snippets from a couple of newspaper articles is a bit much.
You will not find a stronger defender of the Constitution on the Washington state Supreme Court. There is a reason that Richard Sanders was once condsidered a hero by Michelle. It is because he stands for the rule of law, even when they’re poorly written. He does not legislate from the bench.
He’s the kind of person who doesn’t allow words like ‘molester’ to influence his understanding of the law. One would think that the legislature could read his dissenting opinions and revise the statutes, but that would be asking far too much of them, I’m sure.
And, I knew you weren’t saying the other members of the court were conservative. I shouldn’t have said that. I just wanted to clear up the implication that the Washington state Supreme Court was anything but a bastion of socialist judges. Sanders is the only independent voice they have. I think all of the 8-1 decisions lend evidence to that assertion.
“sat quietly”, not “say quietly”
I think you need to re-read my post. You seem to have missed the point.