SC Supreme Court Drama Continues

By fitsnews • on May 4, 2009

Ever since we reported on sensational sexual allegations leveled against former Supreme Court candidate John Few last week, a clearer picture of the origins of the attack have been coming into focus.

Meanwhile, the parlor game gets murkier and murkier.

Obviously, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that in a two-person Supreme Court race, the candidate who is not the subject of the attack is generally perceived as the attacker.

You don’t have to engage in cui bono speculation when the obvious answer is staring you in the face, right?

And in this case, we’ve been told that several supporters of victorious Justice-to-be Kaye Hearn were involved in spreading the rumors about Judge Few.

Specifically? Two former law clerks, a Supreme Court staffer and a powerful State Senator are said to have orchestrated the entire process.

In fact, we’re being told that this particular group of Hearn supporters was spreading dirt on Judge Few long before those rumors landed on FITS.

But is there a twist ending we’re missing? Like Usual Suspects – or the last five minutes of a Law & Order episode?

Needless to say, we’re treading very carefully, and with so much speculation out there about our motivations in this case (the parlor game concerning our founding editor’s alleged interests is evidently every bit as intriguing as the “whodunit” itself), we’re doing our best to “trust but verify” the veritable torrent of information we’re getting.

And trust us, this story has a lot of people very, very hot under the collar.

Right now, lawsuit threats are currently running about even with real news tips.

Here are a few statements that we feel comfortable making, irrespective of what supporters of either judge are saying:

Judge Few had some sort of involvement with our original source, a female lobbyist at the State House.

That involvement was of a physical nature.

Details concerning that involvement may have been exaggerated to harm him politically.

Supporters of Judge Kaye Hearn were likely involved in spreading those harmful details.

As we have noted, we took great pains to document the information provided by our original source – just as we have taken pains to document the alleged Hearn conspiracy.

And let’s be clear – at no point in this process have we accused Hearn of being involved in any of this.

But those four statements – at least from where we sit – are pretty tough to refute.

As is the fact that Hearn benefited.

We’ll have much, much more on this in the days to come as we chase down our leads and sift through all of the material we’ve been provided.

In the meantime, Sic Willie is reportedly issuing a statement regarding his alleged involvement in the race later today.

Comments

By John Maszka on May 4th, 2009 at 4:42 pm

Whoever President Obama picks, it should be someone who understands the gravity of the appointment.

I’m conducting research on how American foreign policy affects popular support for terrorism. This research project (RP) involves a worldwide survey to measure popular support for terrorism. It is inspired by the overall abuse of power pursued by the George W. Bush administration precisely at a time of ever-increasing demand for international cooperation and diplomacy. This RP maintains that the Bush administration’s foreign policies of unilateralism, preemption, and military hegemony (commonly referred to as the Bush Doctrine) represent a radical break from traditional American foreign policy. It further asserts a correlation between popular support for terrorism and a strong dissatisfaction with the status quo as upheld by the global hegemonic power.
Even though the Bush administration is no longer in office, this correlation is still relevant today as, without a clearly articulated Obama doctrine as of yet, we have no indication that American foreign policy will change course anytime soon. More broadly, a correlation between oppressive American foreign policy in general and popular support for terrorism would be of great interest to international relations (IR) scholars of all theoretical backgrounds— as America is the global hegemon. And for this reason, American foreign policy has a tremendous impact on the rest of the world. It can be used to secure peace and prosperity in the world (and along with it American credibility and legitimacy), or it can give rise to anti-American coalitions, create inefficiency through a loss of international cooperation, and diminish what legitimacy America may still enjoy as the leader of the international community.
During the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, we witnessed the latter at unprecedented levels. With a new administration in the Oval Office, research of this nature can prove invaluable in championing a more benevolent and multilateral American foreign policy in the future. Finally, measuring popular support for terrorism will afford us the ability to construct a model that demonstrates the demographic composition of a society supportive of terrorism versus one that is not. This model, in turn, should provide a method of measuring and predicting 1) the potential for terrorism in any given society, 2) the direction that acts of terrorism tend to be moving in (e.g. westward, eastward, or remaining static), and 3) broad trends in the support for terrorism, such as whether popular support is increasing among moderates, Westerners, and so forth. The survey can be accessed at

http://www.johnmaszka.com/SURVEY.html

Please take a moment and fill out the survey. The long-term goal of this project is to facilitate a more diplomatic American foreign policy in the years ahead.

Thank you!

John Maszka