American Working Families - Miriam V

AM Feed - August 19, 2005

Hot Topics
List of 3 items
A new round of documents relating to US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts'
earlier career was released yesterday, and the latest information once again
undermines his supporters' claim that he is an innocuous middle ground
candidate. The latest documents outline Roberts' views on women in society.
In one,
he sneered at "the purported gender gap," and dismissed efforts to pay women
the same as men for jobs of "comparable worth" in other papers calling them
"anti-capitalist." The papers also include a stunning remark made by Roberts
featured in our "Who Says That?" section below.
[link]
Ohio Governor Robert Taft (Rep.) was found guilty of all four charges of
ethics violations yesterday shortly after pleading no contest. Each
misdemeanor
carried a $1,000 fine, and Judge Mark Froehlich also demanded that Taft
issue a public apology. Taft complied, but blamed the 52 incidents of
unreported
gifts on his office's poor record-keeping system. One survey this summer
found that just 17 percent of Ohio residents approve of the job Taft is
doing,
making him the nation's least popular governor by far.
[link]
By now it's a familiar story: President Bush has nominated someone with a
checkered past to a top position. But this time, it isn't John Bolton. (Or
Alberto
Gonzales, for that matter.) Bush tapped Michael Wynne, a longtime Pentagon
official, to be the new Air Force secretary. Here's the rub: Wynne was a
member
of the Pentagon acquisition office during a leasing scandal with Boeing that
resulted in one Air Force official serving time in a federal prison. The
deal
centered on a $23.5 billion contract to lease Boeing air fueling tankers - a
sweetheart lease that included inflated prices. Wynne was faulted by a
Defense
Department inspector general for failing to follow proper procedures during
the lease process.
[link]
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Who Says That?

"Some might question whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers
contributes to the common good, but I suppose that is for the judges to
decide." -
US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, in a Reagan-era document. A spokesman
for the Bush White House called this remark "a lawyer joke."

Morning Snark
List of 1 items
No, a "lawyer joke" almost always involves a guy walking into a bar or
something like that. Roberts' statement is just good old-fashioned
chauvanism. Maybe
he and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) can get together and share their favorite
"lawyer jokes" from the comfort of some club that doesn?t admit women.
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