Barney On Bernie August 4, 2015August 2, 2015 I am enthusiastically neutral among all our fine Democratic candidates — knowing that whichever one gets the nomination will be miles ahead (in my view) of the Republican. That’s not blind partisanship; that’s a recognition that their nominee would appoint Supreme Court justices like the ones the Bushes appointed (Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and Sam Alito*) where ours would appoint justices like the ones Clinton and Obama appointed (Ginsburg and Breyer; Kagan and Sotomayor). And that their nominee would favor the powerful and wealthy at a time when the pendulum has already swung too far their way. My long-time hero Barney Frank (“How did a disheveled, intellectually combative gay Jew with a thick accent become one of the most effective (and funniest) politicians of our time?“) also wants a Democrat to win . . . . . . and offers this particular point of view. *With whom, at a swank function populated almost entirely by Democrats, I once had the pleasure of speaking for five minutes — mainly about the weather — assuming he was a mega-donor whose familiar face I knew I knew, but couldn’t quite place. “So what did you and Justice Alito talk about?” the friend who’d introduced us — “Andy, you know my classmate Sam?” — asked later that evening.