I don't blog much about politics -- most of the folks at the other end of the links I put up a few entries ago do it much better than I do -- but occasionally something catches my eye. So:
Over here we have a few choice bits:
Senate leadership aides said Thursday that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., that Democrats will invoke their right to hold the Alito committee vote over for one week.
"Bah! You cannot stop our plans for galactic domination with such puny tactics!" sneers Senate Sith Lord Frist, twirling his mustache villainously.
Okay, but for real: back in December, Frist himself stated ""I will use all the tools I have to simply get an up-or-down vote on the floor of the Senate for the president's judicial nominees."
As long as, you know, they aren't Harriet Miers. Wait. Did I say that out loud? Never mind... here's what we're hearing today:
"Procedural gimmicks and partisan tricks will not stop the confirmation of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court, no matter how much extremist elements of the Democratic Party wish it so," a Frist spokesman said.
Well, no. And all by themselves, in isolation, standing alone, and other cool phrases essentially meaning 'all by themselves', the American Minutemen wouldn't have had a chance of booting the most powerful Empire on the planet at that time off of their continent. But the Minutemen had a lot of other factors weighing in their favor -- Britain had a fleetload of problems in other places, and was stretched way too thin to deal with those miserable bloody Colonials the way they so richly deserved.
Of course, that's a foolish analogy; nothing like that is happening with the Republican Party right now:
To pull off a successful filibuster, Democrats need things to go their way both inside and outside the hearings, said Julian Zelizer, a Supreme Court expert at Boston University.
Events outside the hearing also will have an influence, Zelizer said, especially the guilty pleas of Jack Abramoff, the once-powerful lobbyist who has agreed to testify in a political corruption investigation. It could "increase the willingness of the Democrats to be even tougher in the Alito hearings, sensing that the Republican leadership is in trouble," he said.
I'm thinking, a week's delay here, a week's delay there... pretty soon, you're talking about serious Republican indictments and a fundamental shift in Congressional power.
I'm just sayin'.
You're just saying and the rest of us are just hoping.
ReplyDeleteI try not to get too excited at the troubles of this administration. Bush's minions are too loyal. Where's John Dean when you need him?
Excellent Post, H!! I especially love your title. It's made me chuckle and chuckle. Thanks for that!
ReplyDeleteWhile I'd love (and I mean it...LOVE) to think that the 'pubs have so many fires burning right now that they'll be cautious about Alito, I've lost my faith in such things. It's sad. I know. I'm hoping you can show me the way. But, right now, I don't know. I'm thinking they're gonna start ramming whatever they can ram through because they've gotta be thinking they need to do as much damage as they can...just in case somebody wises up!
Sadly, I'm afraid that's going to be the case. They've scored the most points by taking tough stands and pushing things through. It invigorates not only the immediate target audience - the people who have an anti-abortion, pro-business, etc. agenda - but many of the people who are politically on the fence or otherwise uninterested have bought into the spoon-fed view that all the opposition does is criticize. This allows them to paint themselves by number as Leaders who place their principles over polls.
ReplyDeleteI imagine the Nazis circa 1940, in some parallel timeline where at least the appearance of free and democratic elections had been maintained. They deflect blows from critics by saying, "You only criticize! Okay, so what's your plan for taking back our land in Poland and dealing with the Jewish Problem?"
Still, all we can do at this point is draw attention to the issues and work with such politicians who are left to us to attempt to stand against the tide.