Democratic Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado will introduce Neil Gorsuch at his Senate confirmation hearings for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gorsuch is from Colorado.
Bennett is one of the most fervent advocates for school privatization in Congress. Before entering the Senate (he was appointed to fill a vacancy, then was elected), he was superintendent of Denver, where he promoted high-stakes testing and charter schools. He is a DFER favorite.
Apparently, he forgot that not a single Republican senator was willing to support Merrick Garland, the highly respected federal judge nominated by Obama for the seat that Gorsuch is likely to take.
Ian Millhiser of Think Progress says of Gorsuch:
Gorsuch’s record suggests that he is to the right of the late conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia, and possibly as far right as the most conservative member of the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas. As a judge, Gorsuch voted to limit women’s access to birth control in the Hobby Lobby case. He tried to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood in Utah. And he is likely to provide the key fifth vote to uphold voter suppression laws that skew the electorate to the right and help keep Democrats like Michael Bennet from winning elections.
Those who have followed the rightwing tilt of Democrats like Bennett are not surprised.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
According to a recent NYT piece on Gorsuch, he was bought and paid for by billionaire Philip Anschutz. The article even mentioned how Anschutz personally lobbied the Colorado senators to appoint Gorsuch to the federal court in 2006. I’m sure Anschutz has made consistent investments in Bennet as well. He gets what he pays for.
The Nyt article refers to a raid in the Louisiana teachers pension by Regal Entertainment. Guess who represented Regal for Phil Anschutz? Yep. Bennet. That’s where he made his millions. And even more horrifying is he has 3 daughters.
Anschutz is a billionaire and has funded anti-gap political campaigns.
He is also in the fracking business and destroys the environment wherever he sees $$$$$.
Nice work, Sen Bennett.
GregB,
Google Anschutz and read about his political activities. He is an evangelical, hates gays, wants to remake the world in his own narrow-minded image.
He was the producer of “Waiting for Superman.”
If you read Ciedie Aech’s book “Why is You Always Got To Be Trippin”, the destructive policies she describes mostly occurred during Bennett’s reign of destruction at Denver Public Schools. With Bennett at the helm, Denver schools implemented the Gates/Fisher/Walton theory of public education. The best thing about the corporate wing of the Democratic party – of which Bennett is a perfect example – they are not a bad as Trump. However their pretending to care about working and middle class people may be a worse betrayal. At least with Trump, you know he doesn’t give a rats …. about anyone else.
Dana Goldstein write a very funny essay about visiting a first grade class in Denver where students were taking a test about art. They were shown a painting by a famous artist and asked what he meant by using a certain color. Can you get dumber than that?
Perhaps the first graders had read and were discussing Wassily Kiandinsky’s “Concerning the Spiritual in Art.”
One of the most menacing aspects about Bennett and his twin Denver superintendent successor Tom Boasberg is that they are both passive and almost childlike in appearance. They speak softly in higher-range voices, giving the impression that they are the “nice” guys.” So many people have been taken in as both men have assertively joined up with the “bad”teacher, “failing” schools charter/choice DFER movement to strategically break up and then lucratively regentrify what used to be a traditional, all-student-inclusive inner-city district. “THEIR PRETENDING TO CARE” is indeed a dangerous betrayal.
Mike Pence must have studied his style at the same place.
THis is a reminder that voting only by party affiliation is not a path to the needed correction for Republican over-reach…a term that Paul Ryan is fond of using against Democrats.
Pathetic. Is there any way progressives can bypass the Democratic Party & elect people who represent us? The taxpaying 99%? The Kochs & the Mercers essentially bypassed the Republican Party by electing Trump.
Progressives can surely do better than these DINOS & John Birchers.
As long as the Walton-funded Center for American Progress, winner of the Bunkum award for dubious ed. research ($2.2 mil. grant from Gates, 2013-2015) makes decisions for the Democratic Party, it won’t be a party of the people. It will be Republican lite. The Democratic party is so owned by neoliberal oligarchs and Wall Street (DFER) that every attempt to pivot the party, to serve the economic interests of the 99%, becomes a tooth and nail fight, resulting in only marginal “wins” for the people.
Agree completely, Linda!
We tried. Bernie got railroaded. Then we were told our only two choices were Hillary or Trump. True neoliberalism. There Is No Alternative.
Dienne,
There were only two choices: Hillary or Trump. You had a choice to not vote or to vote for Jill Stein or Evan McMullen but that was the same as not voting. In reality, the only choice was Hillary or Trump.
That supposed choice was your reality, Diane, not everyone’s.
Great Superintendents of Education Reform:
1.) Michelle Rhee
2.) Arne Duncan
3.) Michael Bennet
4.) John King
5.) John White
Still waiting for a public officeholder to lose his or her position because of positions on education policy.
Stop calling Judge Neil Gorsuch an originalist. His opinions would make the Founding Fathers turn over in their graves.
The Supreme Court nominee’s record on cases pitting individual against corporate rights tilts consistently in favor of corporations over many years. And while many conservative ‘originalists’ don’t like to talk about it, the Founders hated corporations and sharply limited their power.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/18/neil-gorsuch-is-no-originalist-the-founders-loathed-corporate-power-he-favors-it.html
Good piece. I just bookmarked it. Thanks.
Neil Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate, by 96-0 (For his previous judgeship). This should tell you a lot.
That tells you he is qualified to be a judge. Lets not play games here .It does not tell you that you want the American people to live with the decisions he will make that will last for decades.
There is nothing apolitical about this . Nor the court
Only one Democratic senator opposed Obama’s privatizing Secretary of Education. Yet, when Massachusetts voters had a choice in November, by a 2/3 vote, they said “no” to privatization. Congress reflects American oligarchy, as documented in the research of Princeton researcher, Gilens.
The NEA thinks Gorsuch is not good for students with disabilities.
The NAACP has serious concerns about his commitment to civil rights.
Both great bases on which to contact your senator and urge them to oppose this nomination.
Click to access NEA-on-Gorsuch-and-IDEA.pdf
Click to access LDF-Report-on-the-Civil-Rights-Record-of-Neil-Gorsuch-FINAL-3.16.2017.pdf
Save this country.
Reblogged this on Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning" and commented:
Democratic Senator Will Introduce Neil Gorsuch at His Hearing for Supreme Court Justice
by dianeravitch
Democratic Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado will introduce Neil Gorsuch at his Senate confirmation hearings for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gorsuch is from Colorado.
Bennett is one of the most fervent advocates for school privatization in Congress. Before entering the Senate (he was appointed to fill a vacancy, then was elected), he was superintendent of Denver, where he promoted high-stakes testing and charter schools. He is a DFER favorite.
Apparently, he forgot that not a single Republican senator was willing to support Merrick Garland, the highly respected federal judge nominated by Obama for the seat that Gorsuch is likely to take.
Ian Millhiser of Think Progress says of Gorsuch:
READ MORE HERE – https://dianeravitch.net/2017/03/19/democratic-senator-will-introduce-neil-gorsuch-at-his-hearing-for-supreme-court-justice/