Today, Lawrence Tribe, President Obama’s constitutional law professor in his days at Harvard Law School, tried to help his former pupil walk back his ridiculous statements about the Supreme Court. Somehow, Tribe climbed inside Obama’s head, at least from his comments:
He didn’t say what he meant … and having said that, in order to avoid misleading anyone, he had to clarify it.
How would Tribe know that, exactly? He wouldn’t. But this has been the stance of most mainstream leftist legal scholars, who rushed to Obama’s defense not because he was right, but because he’s a fellow leftist. It’s why former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor turned down an interview request with Breitbart.com. It’s why Dean of Harvard Law School Martha Minow turned down a request, and suggested we call Professor Tribe, or Professor Michael Klarman, or Professor David Barron – all of whom are located on the left of the political spectrum.
Obama meant what he said and he said what he meant. It doesn’t take a Harvard Law professor to explicate his statements. It does take one, apparently, to spin them.