A writer is a person whose "overpowering impulse is to gyrate before his fellow man, flapping his wings and emitting defiant yells. This being forbidden by the police of all civilized countries, he takes it out by putting his yells on paper."
--H.L. Mencken
And you thought you were going stir-crazy. This pandemic is driving the press crazier. Some days the stuff coming off the wire is just confusing. Other days it's downright funny. It can be entertaining watching reporters bounce around like bessie bugs.
For this week's best example--maybe it's just today's best example--we give you "speculation in Washington" about coming vacancies on the United States Supreme Court.
Speculation. Which might just mean two reporters talking about it over beers. And one of them decided to write about it.
Here's a lede from The Hill this week, a respected journal in the nation's capital: "Just months before election day, the question of whether President Trump will get to select a third Supreme Court justice hangs over the final weeks of the court's term. Speculation over a possible vacancy has focused in recent years on the prospect of Justice Clarence Thomas exiting while Republicans control the White House and Senate, and alternatively on the health of the court's aging liberal bloc."
Yup, speculation. Until everybody involved denies everything about it.
The Hon. Mr. Justice Clarence Thomas has repeatedly denied anything of the sort. Last spring at Pepperdine University, he told the students: "I'm not retiring."
The Hill even reported that one of Justice Thomas' friends said: "He will die on the court."
A former clerk says the justice is still driving the debates among his colleagues: "I have no reason to think the justice is going anywhere."
Yet speculation mounts. Speculation swirls. (Why doesn't speculation ever just rest? Don't just do something, sit there!)
This country is going to have to open up soon. If for no other reason than to give political reporters something better to do than muse, wonder, and speculate.
Editorial on 05/29/2020