An end to 5-4 rulings?

How much longer can the U.S. Supreme Court maintain its liberal-conservative balance?

The recent spate of 5-4 rulings makes it pretty clear the court is evenly divided, and only the swing vote of Justice Anthony Kennedy has provided a narrow majority on this term’s most important cases, including guaranteeing Guantanamo detainees the right of habeas corpus to challenge their incarceration; and striking down Washington D.C.’s handgun ban.

Nobody doubts that Roe v. Wade is but a single vote away from being overturned by the High Court.

With at least two the court’s liberal justices — Stevens and Ginsburg — expected to step aside soon, this year’s presidential election takes on greater importance. John McCain has said he’ll nominate judges cast in the same mold as John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

If McCain gets that chance, it could alter the ideological tilt of the Supreme Court for the next 30 to 40 years.

Facing that realization, how can it be that so many of Hillary Clinton’s loyal primary election supporters insist they’ll not vote for Obama in November? The last poll I saw has Obama winning just 53 percent of former Clinton backers.

What could the others be thinking? How could they not care about the next appointments to the Supreme Court?

Their indifference to the nation’s well-being will represent more of a political setback than any setback perceived from Clinton’s failure to win the Democratic nomination.

Sorry, Charlie

Is McCain adviser Charlie Black out of his mind, or subtly playing the fear factor early in the campaign?

Black is apologizing for a weekend interview in Fortune when he observed that another terrorist attack on U.S. soil before the November election would help his candidate. McCain has already distanced himself from Black’s published interview, but hasn’t told the now-discredited adviser to take a hike.

Shouldn’t we expect more from the driver of the Straight Talk Express?

And what of the GOP strategy of trying to ensure victory in November by scaring American voters? Can a trusted McCain adviser remain in the campaign hierarchy after going on the record seeking to exploit a terror attack that could leave hundreds, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of victims in its wake?

The GOP, which says it’s making America safer from terrorists, secretly is pulling for another terrorist attack?

What’s the GOP solution going to be next time? Spend another $1 trillion in a failed war on terrorism? Invade another country on the basis of manufactured intelligence data about weapons of mass destruction?

Four more years of this?

Figures can lie, and liars…..

As the presidential election begins to heat up, expect to hear more GOP efforts to introduce the “Big Lie” into the debate — namely, that anything short of a continued open-ended commitment in Iraq represents a “cut-and-run” policy.

At what point, then, can Americans ask, “When is enough enough?”

Our military commitment in Iraq has exceeded the length of World War II. We’ve lost in excess of 4,000 brave members of the military. Tens of thousands of other Marines and soldiers have sustained devastating, life-altering injuries. The death toll of Iraqi civilians is, by most accounts, well above 100,000, and we’ll probably never know the real number.

The record is now clear: We entered into the Iraq war on false pretenses. So, again, at what point can we ask “When is enough enough?”

The administration promised to withdraw troops as soon as Iraq’s own military was able to take over. “As the Iraqi Army stands up, we will stand down” was one of  President Bush’s more catchy phrases. Too bad it was no more than hollow words.

Iraq’s military is no more ready to defend the nation today than it was five years ago.

Instead, U.S. troops forced into extended combat duty, or called back to active duty for three, four or five tours of duty in Iraq, are getting burned out. National Guard resources sent to Iraq to backfill U.S. troop staffing levels are being stretched so thin that the Guard cannot respond to its first priority: responding to domestic crises. The prolonged desert duty is wreaking havoc with our weapons systems, too. Most experts say it will take years to rebuild our military to full strength.

The war’s drain on the U.S. Treasury is nearly a staggering $1 trillion, and this year alone we’ll spend $170 billion. Mind you, that money’s not in the federal budget — we’re simply mortgaging our children’s future by borrowing the funds and adding to the national debt.

So at what point is it a matter of logic, rather than an act of cowardice, to ask our leaders, “When is enough enough?”

100 years in Iraq?

John McCain is justifying his open-ended commitment to a U.S. troop presence in Iraq by drawing comparsions to U.S. deployments in Europe and South Korea.

How often are U.S. forces serving in Germany, or Korea, or Japan, or Bosnia, being placed in harm’s way from suicide bombers or roadside explosives or mortar shells or sniper fire?

Our troops are at risk as long as they remain on Iraqi soil.