Don Vito Corleone
Elite
- Feb 10, 2000
- 30,029
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Originally posted by: Linflas
I'm using the term slander as in the above definition, not as a legal term. What Kennedy said in that little diatribe most certainly damaged the reputation of Bork and that was just the beginning. The left so besmirched the mans name in those hearings that the verb "to Bork" someone is synonymous with attacking someone's character and background.
The definition you're using is the legal definition. Kennedy's statement was not a statement of fact that was demonstrably false (e.g., "Robert Bork uses the "N" word and beats his black nanny"), but a statement of opinion. A statement of opinion isn't slander, no matter how strongly worded it might be.
You don't have to remind me about the verb "to Bork." As far as I'm concerned the Bork confirmation process was a success story, in that I have no beef with Justice Kennedy. I wish this kind of rancor weren't necessary, but sometimes it is - I only wish the Democrats had been even firmer with regard to Justice Thomas, who, unlike Robert Bork, was very marginally qualified at best, and who had skeletons in his closet that had nothing to do with politics per se. In a sense, though, it seems to me it befits GHWB's very mediocre presidency that he appointed one of the least impressive Supreme Court justices in history.