The Tactical Genius of Chief Justice Roberts

"Clear the battlefield and let me see
All the profit of our victory" -Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Tarkus

After the Supreme Court ruling today on the Affordable Care Act -- aka ObamaCare -- the Democrats and Obama are feeling their collective oats, claiming a huge victory over the American people.  While many expected a narrow decision of 5-4, most were predicting that Justice Kennedy would be the swing vote siding with the right-leaning majority. No one expected what happened in the final ruling.

When the dust had cleared and it was learned that Chief Justice John Roberts had tipped the scales in Obama's favor, virtually everyone was stunned. Twitter was instantly ablaze with tweets from giddy Democrats eager to jam their fingers in the eyes of the bill's opponents. (Patrick Gaspard, Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee [DNC], gracefully tweeted, "It's Constitutional. B*tches!") What a guy.

From Today's Drudge Report

Drudge had a picture of Roberts up on his page within minutes, and it portrayed a smiling Chief Justice applauding. I'm not clear on Drudge's intent with the picture, but I took an immediate message away from it. Roberts' smile is dripping with mischief, seemingly asking, "Happy now?".

Yes, Supreme Court Justices are supposed to be neutral in all decisions, but how many times has the SCOTUS been publicly scolded by the Chief Executive at a State of the Union Address? Once, for those keeping score. I would wager that -- for the most part -- Justices are measured in their temperament when deciding on the Constitution, but it must also be noted that power is about payback.

To be sure, there is political peril afoot if I am correct that this was a calculated maneuver by Roberts in that if Obama should somehow win another term, the nation is doomed with this law intact. But the clarification by Roberts' opinion that the individual mandate is indeed a tax makes it all the more unlikely that Obama can survive the voters' wrath come November, to say nothing of one third of the Democrats in Congress, who also face re-election this November.

Whether knowingly or not, Mitt Romney's campaign has been handed a golden goose by the Supreme Court, and all he's got to do for the next 130 days is gather the eggs and -- more importantly -- put them on display for the electorate to see, every day. The first egg to be shown should be the fact that in 2009, Obama was vehement in his denials that the individual mandate was a new tax on the people, something he had earlier vowed would not happen. Being the largest tax hike in the history of the world, this will make George H. W. Bush's "Read my lips" failed promise seem insignificant by comparison.

Add to these woes the pledge by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to hold a full House vote on July 11th to repeal ObamaCare, and Congressional Democrats are in quite a pickle, particularly those whose terms are on the line this year. The people are wide awake right now, and the time left until Election Day is not nearly long enough for the memories of today to fade.

The bottom line is this: when the Democrats controlled the Executive and Legislative branches, that's when they rammed this monstrosity down the throats of a decidedly unwilling populace. I, for one, remember with incredible clarity how they pranced, preened and gloated after its passage, and I'm not about to forget. We had no choice and no voice, even at the myriad town hall meetings, at which we were treated with utter contempt by our alleged "representatives".

Thanks to John Roberts and the Supreme Court, all of the legal arguments are settled and all that remains is an ultimate referendum in November. Our voice is back, folks, with a vengeance. On Election Day, we finally have a say in the fate of ObamaCare. Please use it wisely. Just think about Nancy Pelosi's hideous grin and her statement of, "We have to pass the bill so that you can, uh, find out what is in it".

Our votes have never meant more.

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And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,  

Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?

"It came without ribbons! It came without tags!

"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"

And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!

"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.

"Maybe Christmas . . . perhaps . . . means a little bit more!" - Dr. Seuss

 Exactly what is it about that Constitution, anyway? So close were the Progressives to rendering that old parchment moot, only to be thwarted in the eleventh hour, that there are thus far unsubstantiated reports of heads actually exploding in the land of alleged academia. For nearly five decades, the march was inexorable and the path devoid of obstructions. Success was as doubtful as a subsequent sunrise.

What has happened to the brilliant plans of the Liberal Progressives that once seemed as certain a reality as old age? The most obvious answer is the Tea Party and a spirit that refuses to die, the same spirit that has been mocked ever more boldly by its critics as time wore on and confidence waxed. It is precisely the reason for the analogous reference to Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas.



Not Going According To Plan

 As the Grinch stood atop the mountain with Max, his subservient pooch, expecting his insidious actions to finally break the spirit of the Whos in Whoville, he was devastated to witness that all of his nefarious work had proved fruitless, failing to dampen the joyous celebration taking place below in spite of his work.

The real world sometimes mirrors fiction, it has been said, and so it has now. Congressional Democrats, poised to finalize the plan set forth in the 1960's, have suddenly found that their formerly sedentary foes were not dead, but merely dozing. The media are represented by Max, who participated in the attempted ruin of Whoville, albeit with regrets. I realize that such a comparison is much too kind to today's excuse for journalism, but one I make nonetheless.

When Obama put his signature to the monstrosity of his dream law, universal health care, it was presumed to be the final nail in the Conservative movement's coffin. As it turns out, it was more like throwing cold water on a sleeping citizen, which would account for the necessity of an allegedly triumphant president to continue to travel the country in order to sell it -  the very law he had just signed - to the American people. We demanded a refund.

There's an old joke with the theme, "...and that's when the fight started." This one started when the Democrats - in their final, frenzied assault on the Constitution - began telling us that that document didn't really mean what we believed it to mean. The gloves finally came off when their victory dance left footprints all over it.

Oh, they insisted upon displaying a false bravado, with Obama threatening to veto a repeal by Congress. Even the media (we'll call it "Max") tried to assist, insisting that such a repeal would be futile and a horrible waste of time because of its chances of succeeding. No matter, the Tea Party-fueled members of Congress will not be deterred, and will ultimately choke off the funding for ObamaCare if that's what it takes.

Through all of this, the Liberal Progressives kept waiting for us to buckle, to crack under the weight of their momentum. They tried to smear the Tea Party members, lied about the tone of the rallies, and failed to substantiate a single claim. Even Andrew Breitbart, who offered $100,000 to anyone who could provide audio or video of the alleged racial slurs hurled at Black congressmen, still has his hundred grand.

Just when the Tea Party was supposed to falter and display the horrendous characteristics of angry, white racists, they instead did something amazing; they sang. They sang, they smiled, and they cleaned up after themselves, all the while maintaining a calm civility that infuriated the supposed intellectuals who could not fathom their own failure after so much seeming success. And then the Tea Party helped the sane regain control.

So it stands to reason that, despite the majority still enjoyed by the likes of Harry Reid in the Senate, there is a very real chance that vulnerable Democrats will desert the sinking ship and join in the repeal. I'll bet the Left never saw this one coming.

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