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Current Column (recent columns are linked on the left): 11/2/05 Democratic Comity, Journalistic Sharks Last week was a "dark time" for the Administration. A feeling of malaise and gloom has settled upon the administration. The White House is mired in scandal and reeling from the utter devastation suffered when Harriet Miers withdrew her name from consideration for the seat on the U.S. Supreme Court being vacated by the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. At least that is what the media sharks would have you believe. They think they smell blood, but it is just a weak indictment against a chief of staff. Clinton lost two cabinet secretaries to indictments, but the media was not so eager then to try to ring the death knell for the administration because they liked it despite the fact that it was mired in scandal for the entire eight years. The only reason Joseph P. Wilson hasn't been indicted for perjury is because none of the lies he has been telling for three years now, and which his lap dogs in the media have been idiotically parroting all along, have not yet been delivered under oath. (If you haven't been following the story and don't know what lies he has been telling, here's a quick hint: anything he says that sounds like it would embarrass the administration if it were true is demonstrably false.) But in point of fact it is the Democrats who are falling into a malaise. They were becoming hopeful that Harriet Miers would turn out to be another waffler like Sandra Day. Now they face the prospect of trying to oppose Judge Samuel Alito, who has fairly conservative credentials, at least on the surface, and is widely respected by those who agree with his rulings and those who do not. They were hoping (like the media lap dogs) that the Special Prosecutor was going to indict Carl Rove for a conspiracy to expose an undercover operative of the CIA in a calculated "dirty tricks" campaign. Clearly there is not even a weak case to be made that such a thing ever happened. The only indictment alleges that Lewis Libby testified falsely to the FBI and the Grand Jury about where he first heard that Valerie Plame was an employee of the CIA. It remains to be seen whether it can be proved that he remembered these details at the moment he testified falsely, because if it cannot, the indictment will certainly never come close to unfolding in a conviction. So the Democrats are looking for red meat. Yesterday Harry Reid, the Democratic Minority Leader, stood up before the Senate, accused the Republican leadership of stonewalling the second phase of investigation into the question of the conduct of the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and forced the body into closed session to resolve the matter. This act of political violence shatters the self-serving myth of the "comity" of the Senate that Democrats like to fall back on when they start losing arguments. They invoked it most recently, and the all-too-friendly Republicans acquiesced, when the move was afoot to clarify the Senate rules to make it clear that the filibuster is not an appropriate tool to be used in the context of the confirmation of a presidential nominee. They dubbed it the "nuclear option" and talked many into believing that it would shatter the stability of the institution. Well, there was no such stability; they just wanted us to believe there was so they could hide their daggers for a bit longer. Well, the knives are out, now, and it is time to call their bluff. No more lies about "comity" while you plot to manipulate ongoing investigations for political motives (just like another group of Democrats did in the 1950's when they forced Sen. Joseph McCarthy to hold hearings openly--or not at all--and then criticized him for naming the witnesses publicly--which he says he would have preferred not to do, and there is no reason to doubt his word). No more pussyfooting around nominations. The finger is on the "nuclear option" button and it is time to press it if the Democrats even look cross-eyed at a nominee who isn't a member of al Qaeda. Modified: 11/02/2005 |
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