This is a must read post:
The much-discussed deal on judges was, despite the cries of the hard core, about the best possible outcome for the Republicans at this point. Of course, the best possible outcome would have been for this to never have been made an issue at all: the President was having a fair number of his nominees pushed through, and there was not, to my mind, any particularly unusual Democratic obstructionism underway. Certainly it was annoying to see particular nominees held up on procedural grounds: but really, folks, welcome to the United State Senate.
Historians will look back with no small amount of wonder at this bizarre episode, wherein a majority seized with a maximalist vision of its own power and mission, and facilitated by the personal ambitions of one man, decided to sweep away the institutional checks upon which it itself so recently relied to stymie its opposition’s plans. One may well quibble about the distinction between a judicial and legislative filibuster, and one may rightly point out that the Democrats under Reid were doing something quite novel. But the former distinction is a fundamentally dishonest one — having crushed the filibuster on judicial nominees, who is so naive as to believe it would remain untouched elsewhere? — and a novel use of a venerable tool does not invalidate that tool. Add in the immensely distasteful and unwise mobilization of persons of faith (a demographic in which I count myself) on what was, despite the hype, a tactical rather than a moral matter, and you have all the elements of a profoundly stupid war of choice.
Amen. For fun, try to keep track of the number of times you hear the words “Benedict Arnold” or “snatched defeat from the jaws of victory,” or other such excessive rhetoric. Keep track of the venom launched at John McCain, who, lest we forget, was a profoundly loyal soldier in the election of Geogre Bush, despite the residual nastiness from the 2000 primaries.
The far right, far from deserving our respect and support, are showing themselves to be a bunch of hard-headed, short-sighted, mean-spirited stooges who want what they want when they want it, the rest of us be damned. Trevino concludes:
What’s bad is easy enough to see: the party and the Administration have lost their way in the second term. The pressing issues of the day — the war, the deficit, the dollar — have all been ignored in favor of bizarre voluntary fights on Social Security, the filibuster, and the rearguard actions to defend Tom DeLay. It is a stupefying squandering of political capital that speaks ill of the party leadership from the White House to the RNC to the Office of Senator Frist to the offices of activists from Main Street to K Street. I wish I could have faith that the internal bloodletting to come would bring some common sense to bear, but I do not. For the moment, all we can do is cross our fingers, thank God that the Senate Democrats have a pro-life leader to take the sting out of defeat, and hope that the much-reviled “moderates” can, on occasion, save us from ourselves.
Again, I prefer a straight up-or-down vote on judges- but that never was the case. We always used procedural methods to defeat nominees we didn’t like, never once braying about the Constitution or the right for a President to have his nominees voted on. Any statement to the contrary is just more of the idiotic hubris I have grown to expect from my party. We have truly morphed from the party of Goldwater and Reagan to the party of Limbaugh, where rhetoric trumps reality.
More here. And Bill Quick, who I agree with on almost every issue, asks:
What was the last “big one” that secular, small-government, constitutionalist conservatives won under the GWB administration?
ppgaz
Well, I went looking at the linked source to find out where, where in the world ….?
Oh. It’s North Carolina.
Never mind. Nothing to see here, move along.
TJ Jackson
Let’s hear for McCain the man who brought us McCain-Feingold that was supposed to clean up money in politics. Do you suppose we’ll hear about filibusters again when a supreme court vacancy occurs?
Well if McCain could trample the Constitution once, its obviuous he’d do it again. So if you believe the Constitution is a bunch of suggestions lets hear it for Mr. McCain and the RINOs.
TJ Jackson
I wonder how much respect and support these RINOs will get in the next primaries/elections?
No doubt they can count on massive Democrat support. Bye, bye RINOs, Warner should be the first one out.
Mr Furious
“We always used procedural methods to defeat nominees we didn’t like”
Do you mean the procedures that were stripped away by the Republicans (blue slips, etc.)?
Ridge
John-
Once again your position on the filibuster gives heart to those of us on the other side who fear the GOP leadership has gone nuts and taken most of its members with it.
The nuclear option, makes sense only if one thing is possible. Despite history, for the Republican Leadership to push this implies that the party will never lose the White House or control of the Senate ever again.
Never.
Really, to strip yourself of such a valuable tool to the minority, which the GOP was just a few years ago, logically suggests they think they never will be in the minority again; so won’t need it.
Why would anyone think that?
Either one thinks the GOP is on a misson from God and he won’t allow the citizenry to vote the wrong way…or you have a method to make sure that tally will never go against you.
Considering the unprecedented interference of the events of 2000 and questiosn about 2004, this is an unspoken but real fear for some . Is it realistic? I don’t know but setting up the ability to change Senate rules with only 51 votes is a troubling (or willful) rejection of past experience.
Take that as one may, thanks for the voice of sanity on the “conservative” side, which is one of the reasons I keep visiting.
R
cminus
TJ: I’m with you. Making sure that McCain, Snowe, Chafee, Spectre, Collins, Graham and Hagel don’t return to the Senate is even more important than keeping those seats in Republican hands. It has to be made as clear as possible what the Republican Party stands for. Conservative challengers need to be found to run against them in the primaries, and, if the challengers don’t get the nominations, conservatives need to vote for third-party candidates in the general election.
Sincerely,
the Democrats.
Jeff
Specter HAD a conservative primary challenger in ’04. The conservative lost.
He had one in 1992, as well. That guy got creamed.
Dave Ruddell
Bye, bye RINOs, Warner should be the first one out.
I see a parallel her with comments like this one to the case of the Senate Race in Rhode Island. There, Jim Langevin was considered a good bet to beat Chafee for the Demoscrats. Only problem is, he’s pro-life. So, NARAL swings into action and endorses Chafee. Sure, that means one more pro-choice senator, but it also means you have the pro-life party in control. Good tactics, bad strategery.
TJ Jackson
Those seats are effectively in democrat hands now. It just goes to show that the GOP has no party discipline and any grandstanding moron like McCain and Warner can throw the constitution and principle to the winds for a moment of media fawning.
What this also points out is the bankruptcy of the Democrat party. If the nominees they decried as fascist beasts were so bad why did they allow them to get a vote? The Dems are the most unprincipled bunch of corrupt politicians we or even Canada has ever seen, but they do have party discipline.
It does my heart good that McCain has definitely outed himself following his miserable sponship of McCain feingold along with the rest of the RINOs.
Run Hillary and Jackson.
The Republicans
Ben
TJ,
You are either being sarcastic or you are an infant… take your “conservative” butt over to evangelicaloutpost.com and commiserate with other “conservatives”…er, theocrats.
Andrei
“It just goes to show that the GOP has no party discipline and any grandstanding moron like McCain…”
Regardless whether you like his politics or procedures as a Senator — and I know for sure I’ve rarely agree with many of positions in the Senate — the man fought for his country and survived as a POW so folks like you and I could complain about politics.
In that regard, I’ll get to the point: go fuck yourself for ever calling a man like John McCain a moron.
Disagree with him if you like. But hearing this new meme coming out of the side of people’s mouths regaridng McCain, and listening to Limbaugh make fun of McCain on this morning’s radio show in this way, is seriously foul.
Al Maviva
It’s great that the President got all his bankruptcy court judges approved.
Unfortunately, he was only getting two out of every three appellate court judges confirmed, and none of the conservative blacks or hispanics. (See the Ted Kennedy / Miranda memos regarding this strategy, which is aimed at maintaining Dem hegemony in Black communities, and preserving the shrinking Dem majority in Hispanic communities). As a lawyer, I want judges of good character. Most judges of good character, will rule more or less the same way in most cases, regardless of politics. There are some lunatics – Reinhardt just makes shit up out of whole cloth – but for the most part, it doesn’t matter except on hot button social issues – maybe 5% of cases, where the appellate picks really matter. That’s exactly where the President is supposed to get some discretion in his picks.
The purpose of the fillibuster was to move the ratchet to the left. The Dems as a matter of principle wanted to establish a precedent that no conservatives, and no libertarians (see, e.g. Janice Rogers Brown, a staunch libertarian) could get through. So “moderates” would be the far right edge of acceptable picks. It’s a one way ratchet John. It will never get turned back. If you look at the likes of Janice Rogers Brown – a brilliant, black libertarian woman, who is talked about as Supreme Court material – you’d better enjoy it now, because in the absence of Republican temper tantrums, she goes no further. Instead we get more Souters or God forbid Breyers, who write constitutional policy from the bench, based on the allegedly constitutional right to define the mysteries of life for one’s self. This is one of the few important issues where Bush has stood his ground, on key conservative and libertarian issues, and you are slamming the hell out of him and the Republicans for it. Odd.
TJ Jackson
Andrei:
What’s a matter get turned down at NAMBLA and feeling blue? McCain’s record stands after being having Republicans reject his positions nationwide. His war record has nothing to do with his political activities I only someone with a limited IQ would seek to make such a connection.
But then your comments display that disconnect between reason and logic that characterizes those with serious emotional and mental problems.
Primum non nocere
Andrei
“What’s a matter get turned down at NAMBLA and feeling blue?”
Nice try.
“His war record has nothing to do with his political activities I only someone with a limited IQ would seek to make such a connection.”
All I said was that he does not qualify as being called a moron, especially in light of what he has done for this country. Disagree with him if you like, but I think calling him a moron is outside of bounds. Obviously, that is my opinion.
Guess you didn’t bother to read what I wrote because you got upset I told you to go fuck yourself.
Andrei
“Primum non nocere”
Oh, I forgot…
Futue te ipsum!