America truly lost one of its sages this week with the passing of Judge Robert Bork. The country’s loss was all the greater in that he never got to occupy the seat he so richly deserved on the U. S. Supreme Court.
That he did not was largely the handiwork of political hacks not fit to judge a man of his caliber, or just about anybody else’s, for that matter. One of these politicos now serves as vice-president of the United States.
The Republican operatives who undertook the task of packaging him for the consumption of these worthies were equally shortsighted. The man did not need a makeover.
Your correspondent had the privilege of seeing Judge Bork speaking at a dinner in his honor not long after the debacle of the Senate vote that denied him a place on the highest court in the land. He had just taken a position at the American Enterprise Institute.
“I was on the bench,” Judge Bork told the crowd.”Now I’m at a think tank.”
“Every day I go to the tank and think.” Few, if any, of his detractors could have ad-libbed such a line.
The evening was a memorable one. It would have been unforgettable even if Greg Gutfeld had not set fire to a table at the venerable old Mayflower Hotel, where the banquet was held.
Judge Bork told the audience, “We must, as conservatives, stop the liberals from using the Constitution to implement their political agenda but we must not, as conservatives, use the Constitution to implement our own.” Isn’t that what it’s all about?
RIP, your honor. It was our honor to know you and know of you.
Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.
If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail mal.kline@academia.org.
