Bush seems determined to get some real mileage out of the waning weeks of his Congressional majority. First it was John Bolton and the domestic wiretapping acts, not it’s a panel of judges so far out there that even Republicans have their doubts:
After calling for bipartisanship, President Bush surprised Senate Democrats with plans to renominate a controversial list of judges – some of whom may be unacceptable even to a few Republican senators. “It’s an unfortunate signal,” said one senior Democratic Senate aide.
[…] Lawmakers and others had been waiting to see whether Bush would renominate four particularly controversial appeals court candidates whose nominations had expired without Senate action. He did. The four include two nominees to the Fourth Circuit in Richmond: Terrence Boyle, a district court judge in North Carolina and a former aide to Sen. Jesse Helms, and Defense Department General Counsel William Haynes, who became a symbol of the Bush administration’s policies on terrorism, interrogations and other wartime powers. In addition, William Myers, a lobbyist and critic of environmental rules, was renominated for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, and Michael Wallace of Mississippi, rated unqualified for the appeals court by an American Bar Association panel, was renominated for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.
Looks like last Wednesday’s open hand of bipartisanship really was a finger. Fortunately these gestures mostly amount to one angry has-been raging, raging against the dying of his light. With Trent Lott now #2 in the Senate GOP the president won’t find many friends in either caucus, in either house. Sad times for a guy whose image begins and ends with projecting strength.
DougJ
I wouldn’t read too much into this: it sounds like a prank to me.
Njorl
I believe I hear young George saying, “Bring it on!” again. I think he might want to stop doing that.
cleek
for Bush, “bi-partisan” means “both sides are partisan”.
RSA
Maybe Bush thinks “bipartisan” is actually “Buy partisan!” meaning that conservatives should only shop at Republican stores, Democrats analogously.
Tsulagi
He is a consistent asshole. My guess is there will be recess appointment presents under a whole lot of Xmas trees this season.
norbizness
Mmmmm…. bi-parmesan.
Jay
Wallace might have a chance since he was once an aide to Mr. Lott. Now if every member of the Senate who isn’t a raging bigot would just drop dead…
I suspect this is the equivalent of a squid squirting ink when threatend. People can’t issue subpoenas or do much of anything if they’re too busy shouting “You want to nominate WHAT?” and shaking their heads in disgust.
Not at all. Bush has at last become The Uniter. Crap like this will unite both sides against him, they’ll sit down and sing Kumbaya and he’ll pop out and say: “Gee guys, see what we can do when we work together!”
Don’t you think?
jcricket
I posted it in the open thread, but Bush also re-nominated Bolton (who has twice failed to have his nomination confirmed – even while the Republicans controlled Congress) and Ken Tomlinson, the crook who tried his best to turn PBS into Fox News.
There’s no reason for the Democrats to be engage in compromise if Bush and the Republicans are never going to “back down” or “give up anything” as part of those bipartisan negotiations.
SeesThroughIt
Well, dur. “Bipartisan” means, of course, “Democrats doing what Republicans want.” If they don’t…well, they’re just partisan obstructionists.
Zifnab
Bipartisan? More like Pie-partisan.
Mark
I’m not shedding any tears for our “Decider-in Chief.” Might have a few laughs at his expense though.
jcricket
Right, again proving that these days, whenever a Republican offers an opinion on what a Democrat should do, or how something will hurt Democrats, Democrats should not listen.
Chili
While that may be true of the king in chief, I’m holding out hope that as the congress runs away from Bush, they might join with the Dems in giving the finger back to 1600.
My guess is Bush became irrelevant on Nov 7th. While we might not see the dems getting much through in the next two years – I’m betting Bush will finally find that Veto pen (nope, not under here!) – that’s not such a bad thing, and it won’t get worse.
Time will tell.
jcricket
There should be a “bipartisan litmus test” before Democrats involve Republicans in negotiations. Those that actually understand the concepts of compromise, give-and-take & comity, as well as those that understand how majority & minority parties are supposed to act, get a pass. Everyone else is left out in the cold.
This way Democrats could return to bipartisanship with the Republicans that deserve it, and not with the ones who only use that word as a cudgel to get Democrats to give in to their demands.
But I think you’re right. Smart Republicans won’t want to be left out in the cold for 2, 4 or more years; and will see that Bush is a lamer-duck than he’s ever been. I expect plenty of vetoes over things that a bipartisan Congress supports.
Larry
Isn’t that spelled with an e-d ?
pie
Yes, but only our glorious national victory in the War on Christmas makes that even possible. Why not decorate a few of the heroes of that dreadful, ghastly, bloody conflict?
He’s unable to adapt. Compromise does not become him.
Sojourner
Hey Repubs! Boy George has been giving the Dems the finger for the past six years. Now it looks like it’s your turn.
LMAO.
Barry
IIRC, back in 2000 or 1999, Bush posed with a ‘bipartisan’ group of Texas legistlatures. It turned out that the Democratic legislators who were not sufficiently pleasing to Bush had not been admitted to the building for that photo shoot. This was the majority of Democratic legislators.
As he was, so shall he be.