So You Say You Want A Revolution

Apparently, this editorialist at the Philadelphia Inquirer really wants Obama to imitate FDR...

This may come as a surprise to some people, but the U.S. Constitution does not specify the size of the Supreme Court.

...So if nine justices is not writ in stone, the embattled President Obama should deal with this hostile conservative/reactionary court by adding three members.

The court's recent controversial decision equating corporations with individuals turned an already overly money-influenced campaign system into a veritable free-for-all of propaganda for corporate and vested interests. It was met with criticism by most legal scholars, praised only by corporate mouthpieces.

Even Barack "Can't We All Get Along?" Obama criticized the decision in his State of the Union speech. A lot of good that will do. The court has four hard-liners who are against what Obama strives for, and a so-called swing voter, Anthony Kennedy, who votes with them in the big cases.

As the court stands, it is reminiscent of the stonewall President Franklin Roosevelt faced in opposition to his New Deal legislation. Four entrenched reactionary justices, known as the "Four Horsemen," were not only anti-New Deal, but some demonstrated a personal dislike for FDR.

... In response, Roosevelt sought to appoint an additional justice for each incumbent justice who reached the age of 70 and refused retirement, with a maximum size of 15 justices. The phrase "packing the court" became the pejorative that turned the public against FDR's plan.

Trust me when I say this -- even Obama's not this tone-deaf politically. They may pass a healthcare reform bill via reconciliation (and reap a whirlwind of sheer electoral pain that may portend real "change"), but doing something like this might make politics permanently disfunctional in this country. And if FDR couldn't sell it, we doubt Obama could, based on his sale of his agenda thus far. Leave it to my hometown paper to publish an idea this dumb.