Accidental Cost
By Geoff Metcalf (05/16/05)
"The hardest tumble a man can make is to fall over his own bluff." --Ambrose Bierce
A great deal has been, is being, and will be written about the Democrats mean-spirited partisan obstructionism of presidential nominees.
However, the irrational, hypocritical liberal rants contribute to the inevitable unintended consequence ‘someone’ in the Democrat caucus should be smart enough and hip enough to comprehend.
Democrats have been (and remain) so focused on the ‘rant du jour’ they can’t comprehend the net result of their shenanigans.
Throughout the partisan acrimony of cheap shoting Alberto Gonzales, Condoleezza Rice, John Bolton and the controversial judges, Democrats have remained in exasperated attack mode. Most savvy observers have understood the itching and moaning was prelude and rhetorical isometrics. The Democrat sniping was mere probing attacks and practice.
The ‘Super bowl’ was supposed to be the battle over Supreme Court nominations.
Both parties have been ranting for years about who gets to reconstruct the Supremes.
• Democrats have been scared spitless that a conservative leaning
Supreme Court would inevitably lead to the revisiting and reversal of Roe V Wade.
• Republicans have been scared spitless that a liberal leaning Supreme Court would encourage and codify judicial activism and undermine the legislative process.
George W. Bush will appoint at least two Justices. Unlike the Vatican’s selection of a transitional bridging individual, it is a slam dunk certainty that any Bush nominee to the Supremes will be a young rock solid constitutional conservative who will eschew the mere hint of judicial activism. In other words Supreme Court Justice nominees will be the Democrats worst nightmare.
Democrats have been so fixated on hacking at trees they neglected the forest that surrounds them.
Despite a diffident Senate leader who really, really has tried to avoid correcting the Democrats previous sin of ‘filibuster lite’, the frothing at the mouth liberal extremists have ‘forced’ a weak disinclined leader to actually demonstrate (albeit reluctantly and belatedly) leadership.
Rich Lowery http://www.townhall.com/columnists/richlowry/rl20050513.shtml recently observed, “During the contentious fight over Clarence Thomas’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 1991, Democrats who were harshly opposed to him still refused to filibuster his nomination, even though they would have had the votes to do so. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy called a filibuster against Thomas ‘nonsense’ and a ‘crazy idea,”’declaring himself ‘totally opposed to a filibuster.’
Well, that was then and this is now. Leahy, Reid, Biden, Schumer et al (the usual suspects) have abandoned the thin fiction of Senate statesmanship for sophomoric partisan bitching.
Frist WILL drop the hammer on the rule change. He is being forced to do so by the myopic, suicidal minority floating down the river denial. And when he DOES, the consequences will be epic (and from the liberal democrat perspective, catastrophic).
All the prelude posturing and rabid rhetoric screeds of Democrats will precipitate a grand neutering.
• Dems knew Gonzales would be confirmed Attorney General and yet they persisted in picking at healed scabs.
• Dems knew Rice would be confirmed Secretary of State and yet they beat their heads against a stonewall.
• Dems recognize Bolton will be confirmed but he is anathema to the liberal democrat incest with the UN.
When (it is no longer an ‘if’) Frist procedurally eliminates the phony duplicitous ‘filibuster lite’, Democrats will be reduced to ‘sound and fury’…or an echo of ‘sound and fury’, and as the Bard observed, it will signify “nothing”.
As the legislative ‘Super bowl’ arrives and the president nominates his candidates for Supreme Court Justices, the majority will prevail.
Arrogant, petty, mean spirited partisans will have squandered any opportunity for ‘statesmanship’ and negotiated compromise. The point of diminishing returns was passed in the wake of the last presidential election.
Democrats have acted like they were still the majority (largely because the whoosey GOP leadership let them). However, ‘enough is enough’ and shame on the Dems for not being hip enough, insightful enough, or smart enough to recognize that there WAS a point of saturation that they dare not exceed. Too late! Stick a fork in them……………
Jack Kemp http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jackkemp/jk20041115.shtml observed that,
• “During the 19th century there were only 23 filibusters.”
• “Between 1970 and 1994 there have been 191 filibusters.”
In the wake of ‘fixing’ the Democrats abuse of process and restoring the filibuster to a tool of the minority to fight offensive legislation, it is safe to presume henceforth (absent some subsequent do over) filibusters (real filibusters) will become as rare in the future as principles in the Democrat caucus.
When that happens (which is a good thing) it will not be a function of an arrogant abusive GOP leadership…rather it will be a direct function of the myopia and excesses of Democrats.
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