My Aisling

Ann Coulter brings Arlen to bear

Ann knows how to strip a person to their skivvies. She cites the Toomey Anointing due next week as the single most important election this year, second only to W's coronation. She is viciously accurate in detailing Arlen's sins. Among the atrocities in Arlen's wake are: States can't prohibit partial-birth abortion; voluntary prayer is banned at high school football games; flag-burning is a constitutional right; the government is allowed to engage in race discrimination in college admissions; the nation has been forced into a public debate about gay marriage; and we have to worry about whether the Supreme Court will allow "under God" to be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance.

If it weren't so serious, we could congratulate Arlen for being the antithesis of Bullwinkle J. Kerry - someone who actually accomplished something in his Senate years.

Think she overstates a tad? Let's continue ...

"Specter voted against a slew of conservative Reagan appointees, including Jeff Sessions to a federal appellate court ... Specter pretended to weigh the attacks on Bork thoughtfully and after careful consideration announced he would vote against Bork ... "

Specter has consistently voted against Republican judicial nominees. He has consistently sought to impose a "living constitutionalist" approach to the bench.

Ann references "penumbra" rights. A penumbra is a shadow, often associated with an eclipse. A penumbra right is founded in the 9th Amendment to the US Constitution: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

These "others" may exist, so the Framers provided, but have not been listed. Based upon the enumerated rights, the USSC builds rights in measured tones. They start with a wiretapping case during Prohibition. The government runs the mail service, but they can't open the mail. Is that a proscribed activity or a reflection of a right to privacy held by the sender? And since mail is private, isn't a phone call private? It wasn't in that case, but the ground was prepared.

Next came a few bedroom cases in the 1960s. Privacy existed, but the place was important.

Finally came Roe v. Wade in 1973. A right to privacy not only exists, but is personal and fundamental. The government must have a compelling interest to touch it.

Now, we all agree that the right to privacy is a good thing. But look at how it has been used - abortions since Roe - 45,667,997 and counting.

So the living constitutionalist approach has brought us abortion ... and partial-birth abortion; voluntary prayer being banned at high school football games; flag-burning as a constitutional right; the government being allowed to engage in race discrimination in college admissions; the nation being forced into a public debate about gay marriage; and we now have to worry about whether the Supreme Court will allow "under God" to be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance.

If re-elected, Arlen will be the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I think Ann understates the problem.