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July 26, 2005
Politicians & the Press: They Deserve Each Other
Yesterday, many bloggers were talking about Jonathan Turley's LA Times piece examining the faith of SCOTUS nominee John Roberts. Leaving aside that no nominee to the Supreme Court in my memory has had to endure such scrutiny of his or her faith, and that this fixation on Roberts' Catholicism is beginning to remind me of the know-nothings, what interested most was this:
According to two people who attended the meeting, Roberts was asked by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) what he would do if the law required a ruling that his church considers immoral.
...Renowned for his unflappable style in oral argument, Roberts appeared nonplused and, according to sources in the meeting, answered after a long pause that he would probably have to recuse himself.
Now, the NY Times, in what appears to be an effort to "simplify" (or, more likely, "confuse") the matter have reduced Turley's information to this:
Professor Turley cited unnamed sources saying that Judge Roberts had told Mr. Durbin he would recuse himself from cases involving abortion, the death penalty or other subjects where Catholic teaching and civil law can clash.
Not quite the same, is it? But that might not matter, at all, because aside from the Times' artless simplification, there are questions as to whether this exchange between Sen. Durbin (that paragon of restraint) and Roberts ever took place!
Betsy Newmark has a nice recap:
A spokesman for Mr. Durbin and Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, who spoke to Judge Roberts on Monday about the meeting, said Professor Turley's account of a recusal statement was inaccurate.
But in an interview last night, Professor Turley said Mr. Durbin himself had described the conversation to him on Sunday morning, including the statement about recusal.
Betsy writes: So whom are we to believe: Dick Durbin or Dick Durbin?
But wait! There is more! Jonathan Turley has now "outted" those two "anonymous sources" he had quoted in the original piece, and in this Washington Times piece he sounds pretty angry. From that story:
"Jonathan Turley's column is not accurate," Durbin press secretary Joe Shoemaker said, adding that his boss never asked that question and Judge Roberts never said he would recuse himself in such a case.
"Judge Roberts said repeatedly that he would follow the rule of law," Mr. Shoemaker said.
Disagreement also came on who leaked the exchange.
"I don't know who was his source," Mr. Shoemaker said. "Whoever the source was either got it wrong or Jonathan Turley got it wrong."
Mr. Turley, contacted by The Washington Times yesterday, said his sources were Mr. Durbin and Mr. Shoemaker.
According to Mr. Turley, he met Mr. Durbin in NBC's makeup room Sunday between the senator's appearance on "Meet the Press" and Mr. Turley's appearance on another program. According to the professor, Mr. Durbin told him the story while Mr. Turley took notes, adding that he called Mr. Shoemaker and read back his account of the meeting "word for word."
"I specifically confirmed Senator Durbin's account with his press secretary," Mr. Turley said. .
Turley, hot for a scoop that could prove hurtful to a Bush nominee and willing to use an anonymous source, seems to have gotten burned.
Meanwhile, is this sad, or what? A U.S. Senator and a member of the press each calling the other a liar concerning a story which would not even be have been written, had the issue concerned someone they liked.
The state of our press and politicians. Deplorable in every way.
Crossposted at http://www.theclamauro.blogspot.com
Posted by Thecla at July 26, 2005 02:08 PM