Elliott Abrams Quotes
On June 19, 1981, a vigorously healthy Justice Potter Stewart resigned from the Supreme Court at the age of 66.
Abrams, Elliott. "Pressure Points." Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations.
David Souter was an outstanding Supreme Court Justice—a lifelong Republican appointed by a Republican President. He did not vote the way Erickson thought he should. There was never any hint of any kind of sexual problem with Souter, and why Erickson chose to slander him with these descriptors is not known. One unproven theory is that some Souter votes and opinions upheld the First Amendment freedoms of pornographers and therefore by supporting these practices being promulgated, Erickson thought that he believed they were worthy themselves. Fortunately, Souter was so well thought off that only a few right wing extremists took these lies for what they were. What is important about this quotation is that Erickson did not lose any standing within the Conservative wing of the Republican party as a result of these rash slanders that were in themselves in terrible taste and crudely expressed. The Daily Telegraph of London put Erickson on its "List of Most Influential US Conservatives", giving him a rank of 69th most influential in 2007 and 65th in 2010. This crude lie was made in 2009. The Republican Party traditionally would never tolerate this kind of rhetoric but after the Southern Strategy, the party grew more and more extremist in its views and more and more vicious and unethical in its political methods.
She had been asked how well prepared she was to be a Supreme Court Justice. Many Justices believe that the post is so unique that no amount of lower court experience can prepare one for the Supreme Court.
This was more than a general observation at the time. Elena Kagan had just gone through difficult and extended Senate confirmation hearings to be a Justice of the Supreme Court. She was confirmed but there was a substantial Conservative opposition to her on the grounds that she had not served as a judge, although she had appeared as an attorney in many cases and as Solicitor General of the United States she argued cases before the Supreme Court. To many it was surprising that a sitting justice would so currently take a public position which could be interpreted as criticizing one wing of Congress, especially since that wing had been criticized for just playing petty politics and having no real substantive issues.
Elliott Abrams is an American politician and lawyer, who has served in foreign policy positions for Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump. Abrams is considered to be a neoconservative. He is currently a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. On January 25, 2019, he was appointed as Special Representative for Venezuela. On September 1, 2020, he was further appointed to concurrently serve as the U.S. Special Representative for Iran.
