The ever-watchful Noah Rothman caught this moment of delicious liberal, well, consistency from Melissa Harris-Perry. Even though her criticism is from the left, she comes dangerously close to not exalting in the SCOTUS decisions today, and the crew at MSNBC is visibly unsettled by it.
Harris-Perry threw cold water on the celebrations ongoing at 30 Rock when she lamented the Court’s decision to not rule in the case against Proposition 8. She said that this ruling, along with other decisions the Court handed down this session, “gut the power of the federal government” and prevent Washington D.C. from declaring gay marriage the law in all 50 states.
“It’s been kind of a rocky week for rulings from the Supreme Court,” Roberts opined.
Harris-Perry agreed and apologized for being the cautious voice in the room and interrupting the “celebratory” atmosphere on MSNBC.
“As much as those of us who are allies of this movement, and those of us how’ve been working hard on the question of marriage equality would like to read this in the broadest sense,” Harris-Perry began. “What they did, all week long – from the beginning to the end of this week so far – is to gut the power of the federal government.”
Harris-Perry approved of the Court striking down DOMA and sending Prop 8 back to California, but noted that “marriage may be even farther away” in other states because the federal government cannot now pass a law forcing gay marriage rights on more conservative states.
Harris-Perry is no fan of federalism, but in two decisions this week—one whose results she hates and one whose results she likes—the Court sided with federal modesty. I actually appreciate that she’s not one of the many who declared the Court hopelessly backward and racist Monday only to declare it the savior of all that is good with mankind today. Oh, she called them racist and backwards, to be sure; her 180 was just less dramatic than most. I don’t fancy myself a legal expert, but never has such a relatively cerebral medium produced such ridiculous, hysterical commentary as with Supreme Court opinions.
And, since we’re indulging in a little MSNBC watching, here, let’s also tee up members of the media Chris Matthews and Dana Milbank and the ranking member of House Oversight Rep. Elijah Cummings endorse the debunked report that liberals were systematically targeted by the IRS and declare Issa’s been doing nothing but “shooting blanks” on Benghazi, IRS, and any other thing he’s investigated.
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Presumably, they think the findings that caused Rep. Tammy Duckworth’s righteous rant today are “blanks,” too? Issa’s the guy who found Castillo’s wrongdoing by asking the kind of beyond-the-pale questions Matthews and crew would prefer he didn’t.
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