Investigation requested
RC Radio reports that Birmingham Attorney Barry Ragsdale has notified the Alabama Supreme Court of a possible ethics violation. This came after Sharon Rondeau of the Post & Email wrote that Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore had spoken to someone and told them the future date of the Alabama Supreme Court decision in McInnish v. Chapman. The correct prediction of the date was published at the P&E. Lest we jump to conclusions, Ragsdale in his letter to the court cautioned:
Needless to say, given the tenor and content of the on-line blogs in question, there is reason to doubt the accuracy or veracity of anything reported by them.
Judge Moore was previously an author for WorldNetDaily.
Read the details at RC Radio.
After thinking about this for a while, I feel it more likely that Judge Moore did not have the conversation claimed by Rondeau. The “face to face” detail seems contrived, something added to make the story more believable. This story is a bit like Orly Taitz’ complaint about extra-judicial remarks by Judge Wingate in Mississippi, one that is almost certainly bogus.
one honest judge
will heed our voice
and overthrow
the people’s choice
burma shave
Sharon will pontificate in passive voice and pretending that all the voices in her head make it acceptable to refer to herself as “we” that she’s a diligent and principled journalist who won’t reveal her source, although I suspect it wouldn’t be very difficult figure out who the judge blabbed to since she specifically said her source spoke face to face with Moore on March 15. Of Moore’s possible ethical breaches, I’m more bothered by the fact that he didn’t recuse himself given his connections to Klayman.
This article has been updated to add:
After thinking about this for a while, I feel it more likely that Judge Moore did not have the conversation claimed by Rondeau. The “face to face” detail seems contrived, something added to make the story more believable. This story is a bit like Orly Taitz’ complaint about extra-judicial remarks by Judge Wingate in Mississippi, one that is almost certainly bogus.
Thinker said,
The only people who can refer to themselves as “we” are royalty, newspaper editors and people with tapeworms. — Mark Twain
Roy Moore spoke at an event on March 15 in Maryland–some wingnut thing about loving the Constitution. http://www.theamericanview.com/events/event-calendar/
I think it’s entirely plausible that a birther chatted with him at that event and shared his/her conversation with Sharon.
Considering that we are dealing with Rhondoodoo, I don’t know which is harder, believing her or believing what she said. Past history would lead me to suspect she made this up, but her very lack of originality and creativeness makes that equally hard to believe. So, as someone is fond of saying, a pickle.
However, knowing birthers for their consistent closed mouthedness and integrity, someone, or several someones, will spill the beans before long.
She did predict the timing of the decision’s release. I don’t think that was dumb luck
Meh. They make predictions all the time, and they’re almost always wrong.
I’m on record as believing Roy Moore to be capable of great levels of nutbaggery, but Rondeau’s daily lunacy isn’t the proof of it.
At the time Rondeau published the story about the leak–a week before the ruling was issued–I didn’t believe that she had a source who had spoken to Moore. However, the fact that she was right makes her story believable, even if she herself is not. And the fact that Moore was at a public event with wingnuts on the day in question makes the story even more plausible in my mind. We know that Roy Moore doesn’t take judicial ethics seriously. If he did, he would have recused himself from this case because of his connections with Klayman. I tend to believe it happened more or less like Rondeau reported and I don’t think there will be any adverse consequences for anyone involved.
I don’t disagree with you there, it’s just that it is Rhondoodoo.
Birthers have “predicted” that the decision is “due this Friday” for months. So there might be some danger in simply forgetting all the times their predictions were wrong (the same tactic is usually applied by “psychics” who stress the few times they were right and gloss over the many many times they were wrong).
Then again, I don’t remember Ron D’Eau making any precise prediction about this issue before, especially not beefed up with the claim that the source is Roy Moore himself. (Previously, birther outlets have typically hidden behind weasel punctuation, like styling headlines as questions – “Decision in Alabama due this Friday?”)
I have to say that I believe the story, although I also love the way that the letter says that this might all be bullshit beacuse everything else of that blog is bullshit. I suspect that Moore will tell his colleagues that he simply made an off-hand comment that the decision would be “coming out soon, maybe even this week.” That will likely end the “investigation.”
In any case, it’s a brilliant stroke – a lose/lose for the birthers. Either Moore shot off his mouth inappropriately, or Rondeau published a fake story.
Everything is lose/lose for birthers. They just don’t realize it yet. 🙂
And the hardcore bigots never will.