WASHINGTON (CNN) - The pundits on cable were hot and bothered by one of President Obama’s requirements for a Supreme Court Justice.
“I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes,” Obama said last week at a White House press briefing.
Washington Times columnist Amanda Carpenter explained conservatives’ concern about the “empathy” issue on Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz Sunday morning. Several conservatives on cable, radio and in print argued that “empathy” is a code word for “liberal.” On Fox News, Sean Hannity said that Democrats “want the courts to take over and engage in social engineering.”
"Empathy, it's an emotive term. I mean, Barack Obama is calling for a judge who will take their emotions into account when making a judicial decision," Carpenter told Howard Kurtz.
"This is hilarious," TIME Magazine’s Joe Klein said in response. "This is 'Exhibit A' of what I was just talking about. The Republicans, when they hit the word 'empathy,' are being hateful and ugly."
From CNN Politics
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Darth Cheney strikes again. As an independent minded democrat I would welcome Colin Powell to the party.
true that, republicans only care about money and themselves. Of course they would hate the idea of empathy, duh.
Joe Klein. Thank you,. Well said.
Republicans are parsing words and just spewing out their HATE. Why would any sane person subject themselves to these people? The GOP isn't disappearing; they are throwing people off the bus left and right.
interpreting the constitution (which is spelled out in very plain english) to our laws has little room for empathy. To say that the past and current judges share no 'empathy' is insulting.
For someone who studied constitutional law, Obama hasn't got a clue. Judges #1 rule is impartiality.... you can't have it both ways.
This is Obama's justification for nominating an activist... and he's using 'populist speak' to keep the public outcry down.
if the republican snooties don't start reaching across the the table and begin to use their brain and not their ass . the party will be gone .
listening to this week with george he speaks to John McCain
John is still trying to run for President ..come on John wake up.
you had Sarah and her idiot husband and they are still hanging around your neck and the party...
Well I'd want them to be empathic too. Is there something wrong with that?? I'm about convinced that all Republicans are just morons.
Republicans need to show some empathy instead of being just down right hateful and ugly. You'd think they would have learned something after the election but remain on the same old train track of collison.
Of course Obama wants empathy...unless the person has empathy for babies in the womb, christians, victims of crime, future taxpayers...come to think of it,...what does empathy mean to this clown?
This just shows how heartless and out of touch conservatives have become. What I've never been able to understand is what "Christians" are doing as part of the right wing coalition? Jesus was all about helping others and compassion, and by that he did not mean giving tax cuts to Billionaires.
No politician, supreme court justice or leader of a country should make laws or decisions through religious beliefs, personal beliefs, or personal opinions. Religious doctrine belongs in places of worship. Governing nations of many religions, races, and cultures, judges have to follow the law not interperate it through thier beliefs. Having empathy ( understanding ) for "all" people no matter what income level is a must. I am a christian. I also believe Jesus didn't seek to rule over people, didn't demand and force people to live as he did, he didn't speak to them to make them feel less than he, he didn't make them feel unworthy, and most importantly he didn't teach that "we" seek power over others. Nations ruled by one religion have fought wars, upreising, and commited genocides over religion. This is why people all over the world see each other as ememies and are separate. Jesus taught unity and brought people of many religions and cultures together.
Empathy should be an irrelevant quality in a Supreme Court Justice where instances of judicial review are concerned. Justices should be impartial and look to the principles codified in the Constitution when arriving at just decisions and outcomes, not their emotions.
Constitutional interpretation is not by default a happy/feel-good profession. It can be, but only if the Constitution deems it so.
EMPATHY is a word that most far right conservatives neither have nor know the meaning of. I do have some friends that tend to lead to the right and one of our biggest differences is that they have no empathy towards anybody, seem to care less what a person is going through as long as it's not a loved one or themselves. And they just can't seem to get a grasp on why it upsets me that they are that way. Must be part of the conservative way of thinking so I am not shocked that when President Obama claimed that he was looking for a candidate with empathy that the GOP would take him to task on it.
So............I guess we can eliminate any need for empathy when considering criminal charges against those involved in the rationalization of torture as defined by US and International laws? The law is the law, right?
Empathy is about being human and understanding how your decisions impact others. That is essential to being in a leadership position such as a judge. Empathy is an integral part of being a mature person. All this garbage talk is just the GOP and the media making hay over nothing. The GOP is looking for anything they can spin negatively and media is falling for it to fill air time. Both display a lack of intelligence insulting their listeners.
Don't you just love it, the Fox people can read minds now, what a JOKE they all are....
Gee, Rove saying they were careful who they picked, I wonder if his memory has taken a lapse, does the name "Harriett Myers" come to mind??????????
It was ok for them to lie and call themselves Compassionate Conservatives.An oxymoron if ever there was one,haha.
The GOP is currently being lead by people totally devoid of human empathy and consideration – Limbaugh, Hannity, Palin, Cheney – who only care about their own political gain, regardless of what it does to others or our country.
No wonder they're bothered by the word, "empathy" – they don't know what it means!
I thought the people in our country needs and wants someone that knows and follows the laws of our country,not an emotional view point:
Noun 1. empathyempathy – understanding and entering into another's feelings
fellow feeling, sympathy – sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish)
This is the opposite of what we want !!!!
Nah, republicans prefer the word "compassion" like in "compassionate conservatism
. Usually it means that the conservatism is compassionate to those who are conservative and the more conservative you are the more compassionate it gets.
Of course, "conservatives" hate empathy in general since conservatives only empathize with the tiny rich and powerful minority they serve.
The verdict is in the issue.The Republicans did not get it and so they do not have it. That explains their inhumanity and disconnection from what the average person is enduring.
Conservative Republicans don't understand what the word empathy means because they have none of it in their narrow little world! Empathry is a code word for liberal? Give me a break! Sean Hannity saying something intelligent? That will never happen either! Why are they so afraid of someone understanding the feelings of another human being? Because they
"This is hilarious," TIME Magazine’s Joe Klein said in response. "This is 'Exhibit A' of what I was just talking about. The Republicans, when they hit the word 'empathy,' are being hateful and ugly."
Can Joe Klein be more correct?
Strange how the party for America tries everything it can to stop helping Americans!
Did Solomon have empathy when he suggested that the child in the case before him be cut in half?
God help us if our legal system has no empathy. Even within the legal system, there is some degree of discretion. Where there is room for discretion, err on the side of humanity. That's all most Americans want. That is why we are all, ALL, innocent until proven guilty.
The President will pick someone like mined and he has every right to do that. Why on earth would he select a person who identifies with the far right extremest view. Bush picked like minded people and President Obama will do the same. Stop complaining Repugs he has not even given a name yet. You cry wolf way too often.
Everyone should have empathy, even judges. Judges however have the power to interpret law not make law. We need judges at all levels that can be empathetic but still interpret the accurately. That means that sometimes they make judicial decisions that are painful to them. If they want to be involved in making law they need to run for congress or amend the constitution.
I am amazed at how many well educated people confuse empathy with sympathy. Empathy refers to an ability to 'put yourself into the heads of other people', to understand the perspectives, emotions, and motivations of other people. It does not suggest that you are sympathetic to their beliefs or behavior.
Someone who is not empathetic cannot, for example, write fiction because they can only create characters that think like themselves. Similarly, someone who is not empathetic does not make a good judge as they can only understand their own context. So, a non empathetic overachiever could never understand the behavior of a homeless person (for example).
Anyway, that seems to be the press and the rest of the critics – much adue about nothing.
Empathy can be positive in its proper sphere, but when allowed to dominate public policy without the constraints imposed by cold, hard adherence to facts, disaster awaits.
And really, Joe, the word "hateful" has become as overused and meaningless as, like, the word "like."
Hannity is the end result of social engineering when a conservative mates with the ass end of a hyena.
And when did he say he would be waterboarded for charity? And staying so quiet about it now? Where is his loud, stupid, non-military serving ass now?
Empathy a code word for liberal? So liberals have feelings and republicans don't. Just what I always thought. And these people call themselves christians. Incredible!
Empathy is not in the republican vocabulary. Bush paid lip service to "compassionate conservative" and that was about as close as the republicans have ever come to empathy.
What Judge's decision isn't decided via the hue of their emotions, their point of personal reference? They are human and flawed like everyone else as hard as they may try. Please give me a break! If one listen to Clarence homas, you hear where he was ridiculed and rejected by those in the community he was raised in. This comes through in his decisions.
A Supreme Court Justice's job is to interpret the Constitution, not to feel sorry for someone. If you let emotion rule decisions rather than law, there is no longer justice. Nothing hateful about it. You make decisions based on the law and not emotion, whether it's traffic court or the Supreme Court.
W inflicted damage everywhere
you can set us back on the road to repair
Obama is a socialist with a liberal socialist agenda He will appoint a radical left wing liberal activist judge – just what this country does not need
Yes we know the right wing zealots do not want a human being that thinks and cares about the people – they only want ditto heads that take their marching orders from the extreme right fringe – just like the majority on the current court. They want a theocracy with only white heterosexual super rich Christian zealot men run everything and a woman's uterus is state property that is to be impregnated even by a rapist and forced to give birth to the rapists baby – so of course they are driven crazy by the idea of Empathy.
On Fox News, Sean Hannity said that Democrats “want the courts to take over and engage in social engineering.”
Isn't it "social engineering" when the republicans want the rest of the country and the world to live by their morals and standards?????? And they invade countries to force it down the throats of the people who live there? Do any of those people hear themselves speak, when they spew out the garbage from their mouths?
Who cares if the Supreme Court justice is liberal. He's supposed to be a liberal. Just like it's o.k for a Republican president to nominate a conservative judge, it is o.k for President Obama to put in someone who is liberal with 'empathy.' Get over it, we're in charge now. And being liberal is not a bad word.
So Republicans don't want our judges to have any empathy, but demand everyone to be empathetic to the Bush Administration's illegal torture tactics?
Here we are treated to the wisdom of the lying Joe Klein falling in line with the weak-kneed obama in his choice for a judge. What a joke these people are.
em·pa·thy:
1. Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives.
When exactly has this become a bad thing?
Words like love hate nice pretty sad ugly are mere expressions of human emotion toward a particular subject and in that context only. The law like lady liberty is blind and holds a two edged sword. The balances account for equal protection not teary eyed activism. The law is supposed to be evenly weighted for truth not feeling. Do you want a judge to feel more sympathy for the guy who k-i-l-l-s your kid than you and your kid. No matter how you feel about it consequences usually dont check in at the whimper counter before coming to light. GET REAL AMERICA AND SOON.
I would tend to agree with Bob Empothy and Sympothy are two completely differant things. I don't know about you but I do want somone who has the will of the people in mind when they are making decsions.
That word does not Exsist with the GOP! That is a Foreign word to them!
This is correct - empathy IS a code word for liberal, because conservatives do not care if people suffer.