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May 18, 2005
Well, Yeah!
Harry Reid finally said something I can agree with:
"Right now, the only check on President Bush is the Democrats' ability to voice their concern in the Senate," said Reid, D-Nev. "If Republicans roll back our rights in this chamber, there will be no check on their power. The radical, right wing will be free to pursue any agenda they want."
Yes, that's absolutely correct. The Democrats have squandered control of the executive branch and both branches of Congress, through bad politics, bad behavior and bad policies. Having done so, the only remaining powers they have are their residual judicial appointments (those judges still on the bench who were appointed by Presidents Clinton and Carter) and the thin protections of the Senate filibuster rule and the possibility of crossover votes from non-Party-line Republican Senators like Senator McCain.
They have brought themselves to this position, and now they are - again through bad politics, bad behavior and bad policies - going to strip themselves of their ability to filibuster nominations in order to prevent the Republicans from closing the gap in sitting Federal judges. Once the filibuster is gone, it is only a matter of time before the Supreme Court and the circuit courts are packed with judges who will be more right-wing than if the Democrats had used the filibuster (if you'll pardon the pun) judiciously.
You see, if the Democrats had only filibustered the truly "out there" judges (as they claim, quite transparently ridiculously, to have done), the Republicans would not feel the need to take away the filibuster. In other words, the Republicans would have had to have put forward more moderate judges than they now will, because "restraint" is a word whose meaning is apparently unknown to the Democrat Senators (along with "shall make no law", apparently).
The current likelihood, assuming that the Republicans do not overplay their hand and the Democrats don't wise up, is that Republicans will continue to make slow gains in the House and Senate, will generally hold the Presidency and will thus generally advance the number of Republican judges over the next decade or two. The gains in representation will overwhelm the Democrats' next-to-the-last line of defense: crossover votes. And this will, in the end, leave only one way for the Republicans to be controlled: the inevitable stupidity of politicians who have no effective opposition, leading to their eventual defeat in the polls.
Unless, of course, the Democrats' constant pushing of the doctrine of the Constitution as a "living document" means that the by-then heavily Republican Supreme Court may simply - and with ample Democrat-provided means - decide that election returns are to be counted directly by the House of Representatives.
No, that almost certainly won't happen, but the seeds of such a mess were sown by the Democrats, who are even as I type barreling down the road to powerlessness and a one-Party state, which no sane person wants to see. Well, no sane person who has read any history, in any case.
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Comments
I think the Republicans are already starting to go to lose it. The party of fiscal restraint is nowhere to be seen. The Democrats have not presented a viable alternative, however. Their challenge is to be believed as such.
Posted by: TheOtherBlogger at May 18, 2005 5:58 PM
That's the problem for the Dem's though. They simply are not a viable alternative right now. Every problem I have with Republicans, the Democrats are worse about.
And the Dem's will continue to be unviable as long as their reaction to every electoral defeat is to move further left. 'If only we were more liberal, then people would have voted for us!' Yeah, sure they would.
Say what you will about the Clinton's, but they are politically astute. Clinton triumphed by presenting a moderate left face. Hillary is trying to do the same (too bad for her it doesn't come off nearly as genuine as her husband; it simply looks like blatant posturing, except perhaps on defense). That is the key for creating a viable Left.
Posted by: Brian at May 18, 2005 11:43 PM