The battery hens that form the core of Harpo's supporters have been fed a diet rich in fear and hostility. They're fearful of things like same-sex marriage because they're told its a threat to the very rings they wear on their left hands. Something dark and mystical, probably in the form of a cloud, is going to envelop them and, before you know it, their kids will be forced to marry gays!
Then there's law and order and those "revolving door, slap on the wrist" courts who are unleashing a non-existent crime wave on ordinary, hard-workin' folk. Worst of all are them "activist judges" who use all sorts of fancy legal tricks like the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to defy the will of the people as that is expressed, evangelical style, by a weak, minority government.
No sir, we need judges who won't get hung up on things like the law or legal principles or precedents but will instead do what they're damned well told so long as it's the extremist right talking.
Canada has been known for having pretty good judges far removed from the ideologues that get stuffed into America's courtrooms. Look at George Bush, he's been so busy trying to clone Scalia that he hasn't really had time to win the Global War Without End on Terror.
But, in the best of "Monkey See/Monkey Do" tradition, Harpo is doing his best to emulate his American Idol by transforming the committees responsible for vetting judicial prospects into little partisan ovens to cook the process. The Globe reports the committees are being carefully stacked with reform conservative hacks:
"The Conservative government has loaded the committees that determine who can become a judge, selecting a series of Tories including former politicians, aides to ministers, riding association officials and defeated candidates.
"The influential but little-known judicial advisory committees were created in 1988 to take partisan politics out of the appointment of judges.
"Partisan appointments include defeated Tory candidates such as Mark Bettens, a firefighter from Glace Bay, N.S., whose résumé lists one year at Cape Breton University and two runs for the provincial Tories. There are three Quebeckers who worked as Tory political staffers during Brian Mulroney's government and the Conservative Party's long-time Alberta lawyer, Gerald Chipeur.
"The guidelines for members of the judicial advisory committees bar them from inquiring about the political affiliations of applicants for judgeships. But the Conservative organizers and officials from virtually every region of the country who have been placed on the committees may not need to ask."
It's hard work to pick a good judge because it takes some time to enquire into a candidate's qualifications and experience and professional reputation. On the other hand, it's really easy to pick lousy but obedient judges simply by measuring their ideologies and biases to ensure they conform to what you're looking for. Welcome to the White House on the Rideau.
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