Quick, somebody find me an activist judge!

November 4, 2006

Guest Post by Morbo

Scott L. Rolle is a Republican running for attorney general in Maryland. His candidacy is faltering, and polls show that Democrat Douglas F. Gansler is cruising to an easy victory.

How is Rolle reacting? Is he working overtime to connect with voters or retooling his campaign? Nope. He’s quietly pushing a lawsuit to have Gansler removed from the ballot.

Maryland law states that the attorney general must have resided in and practiced law in the state for at least 10 years. Gansler would seem to meet that test easily. He has been a member of the Maryland bar since 1989 and did volunteer legal work for the Montgomery County Commission on Aging and the county branch of the NAACP. He also did work for family members and friends. Most importantly, Gansler has been Montgomery County’s state’s attorney for the past six years.

Nevertheless, a voter in Bowie, Md., named Nikos Liddy filed a lawsuit challenging Gansler’s right to run. Rolle says he’s not behind the lawsuit, but the attorney who is handling Liddy’s case, Jason Shoemaker, is also Rolle’s campaign manager. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.

This incident underscores what looks like a growing trend among increasingly desperate Republicans: Down in the polls, they seek to have their Democratic opponents removed from the ballot for the most frivolous of reasons. A similar effort is under way in Ohio, where, as the Carpetbagger has noted, a bogus residency challenge has been lodged against Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland.

There are so many things wrong with this it’s hard to know where to begin.

For starters, it’s an attempt to negate the very idea of democracy. We happen to live in a two-party system, but some Republicans, it seems, would rather make that one-party rule — by any means necessary. Such ham-fisted tactics were common in Stalin’s Soviet Union. I would hope they will not be tolerated here.

Secondly, isn’t it ironic that Republicans are turning to the courts — an institution they frequently demonize — to give them rulings that can only be described as “activist”? If tossing a candidate off the ballot 10 days before a general election isn’t judicial activism, I don’t know what it.

Like any other American, Scott Rolle has the right to seek any public office he desires (provided he meets the requirements). He must make his best case and hope the voters decide he is fit to serve and elect him. In this case, it appears the voters have not been convinced that Rolle deserves to be Maryland’s attorney general. Asking a court to make him the sole candidate is not only a sickening display of political immaturity, it also vividly demonstrates exactly why Rolle is unfit to assume the office to which he aspires.

What’s next with the Republicans? Assassinating their opponents? It’s about the only left they haven’t tried.

  • Well, 2000 was a landmark decision, after all. That did place the Courts as the arbitor of Democracy…

  • Thanks Morbo.

    Republicans in general are small-minded people looking more for technicalities than the vision thing. Democracy to them is just something to be tricked out and tripped up.

  • Oh gods, more Politics as Children’s Cartoon. I bet Santorum is in his basement working on some Rube Goldberg device that will cause an anvil to fall on Casey’s head right before the election.

    Fine, call attention to what desperate hacks are trying to get people’s votes. The people of Maryland really like whiny cry babies, really. We do.

    And I wonder if Nikos is any relation to G. Gordon…

  • What has become painfully obvious for the past 1/4 century is that Republican leaders have embraced the Vince Lombardy attitude of winning football games and applied it to our bodypolitik. They have miserably failed to recognize that football games are limited affairs and politics affects real lives. Winning and losing in football means points for as opposed to points against. In real life, the translation is more life/death centered.

    The Republican party here in America in the early 21st century is morally bankrupt, anti-democratic, rabidly unfaithful to common decency, hypocritical, powermongering, hating, falsely proud, and anathema to the preservation of democracy here in the good ol’USA.

    First it was term limits, then activist judges (irony not lost in the above article), then Willie Horton, then Paula Jones, then Newt’s anti-democratic antics while attempting to shamelessly profit from a book deal, then the contract on America, then the rise of FOXNEWS, then impeachment for what was for most venerated sex, then Chad Florida, then the nightmare we have come to know as the Bush Administration. Republican strategy has been an almost endless stream of moral indignation aimed at a convenient foil, serving their political cause no matter what time it is in order to “score points” with whatever focus group these political hacks think they can create positive political currency. This is the dynamic my God-loving parents (both 8 generation Americans) would refer to as whoring. It is just not in the carnal sense.

    A vote for democracy this November 7th is a vote against the Republicans! -Kevo

  • Speed, you forget Ann Coulter has often suggested an alternative, that lib’ruls, disloyal ‘mericuns, etc. should be placed in concentration camps. They’d fail any loyalty oath and a rephrased 50s question (“Are you now, or have you ever been a member of any party but the Republican Party?”).

  • Just a quick factual update for this blog:

    The highest court in Maryland vacated the ruling the Gansler is eligible. Although they dismissed the case based on an equitable doctrine (called laches), there has been NO ruling that Gansler meets the requirements of the Maryland Constitution; AND

    One of the only factual findings made by the Maryland trial court was that the Plaintiff’s testimony was CREDIBLE and that he independently researched this issue and filed this claim.

    Despite concerted efforts to connect Mr. Liddy to Scott Rolle, no one has been able to do so. Mr. Liddy is a registered independent who has, in fact, protested in front of Governor Ehrlich’s state residence. He seems to be anything but a Republican “straw” man.

    While the decision of Rolle’s campaign manager to argue this constitutional issue is open to opinion, you must be fair that any suggestion of Rolle’s involvement is uninformed and unprofessional.

    Either way, the issue of Gansler’s ineligibility remains open until after the election.

    BOTTOM LINE: Questions of constitutional eligibility supercede everything else… Regardless of the how or the why, if Gansler’s candidacy is unconstitutional, it will not matter.

    I am not a fan of underhanded tactics, but I am also not a fan of uninformed and accusatory allegations without merit.

  • “FactChecker” wrote:

    >Despite concerted efforts to connect Mr. Liddy to Scott Rolle, no one >has been able to do so. Mr. Liddy is a registered independent who has, >in fact, protested in front of Governor Ehrlich’s state residence. He >seems to be anything but a Republican “straw” man.

    I guess you think the people who read this blog are idiots. I know better. Liddy’s case is being handled by ROLLE’S FRIGGIN’ CAMPAIGN MANAGER!!! Do you think Rolle would allow that if he did not see some benefit to his candidacy? In any case, Gansler knows why you’re full of it. As WTOP Radio has reported:

    Responding to statements by Liddy and Shoemaker that Rolle played no role in initiating the suit, Gansler said, “To say he had nothing to do with it is just preposterous.”

    “I assume the reason to bring the suit was to get Mr. Rolle some attention. It hasn’t worked,” Gansler said.

    Me again: Rolle is going to get shellacked on Tuesday, and he deserves it.

  • Not to defend Rolle, but just off the top of my head, in this election season, there has been a challenge to Rick Santorum’s residency, successful lawsuits to keep Tom DeLay and Mark Foley on the ballots and a Green Party candidate and even a suit to keep signs announcing that votes for Foley would count for his replacement from being hung in polling places. Those are just the big ones. I have lost track of several lesser known legal manuevers on the part of Democratic candidates to gain some advantage in their races. But every time I run across one I can’t help thinking maybe all’s fair in war, but I sure would prefer to win them all fair and square.

  • I think CalD that you may have a couple of those backward. There were attempts by Republican’ts to remove Tom DeLay’s name from the ballot after it became legally inappropriate to do this.

    As for challenging Gansler, that should have been the job of the Secretary of State (the Maryland election official, not Rice) and if by a private citizen, really, more than ten days out from the election.

  • Speed, comment #1: “What’s next with the Republicans? Assassinating their opponents? It’s about the only left they haven’t tried.”

    I’m not so sure. Remember Paul Wellstone.

  • LANCE: FYI – Maryland has a State Administrator of Elections (within the Board of Elections)… that is the top election official in the State, NOT the Sec’y. of State…

    ALSO — NEITHER the State Administrator of Elections (nor the Sec’y. of State for that matter) has the right to challenge an election or a candidate’s qualifications…

    Per the Maryland Code and the State Constitution, that can ONLY be done by a registered voter OR, arguably, the Governor…

    AGAIN — Not defending anyone here, just making sure we all have the right facts before we throw stones.

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