Thursday, April 14, 2005

A Baffling Point of No Return

When I have time on my hands, and I have the house to myself, and I'm not undergoing a nap attack, my thoughts tend to preoccupy themselves with one of two general topics characterized by my complete lack of personal influence: sex and politics.

Last night it was politics.

No, we're not talking hours, at least not in this case. The wife and kids got home about half an hour after I did, which always banishes my maundering reflections back to my subconscious whilst my conscious mind is submerged in adolescent whining and strident parental strife, into which the kids' mother always tries to drag me. Pity my den door doesn't have a lock.

But in this case, I didn't need hours to arrive at a conclusion that makes perfect sense to me, but leaves me at a loss as to how it escapes so many elected Republicans.

Let's just go through this one step at a time.

1) The DisLoyal Opposition mounted a two-year campaign of lies, smears, vote fraud, voter intimidation - pretty much everything short of kidnappings, beheadings, car bombs, and assassination attempts - did everything humanly possible to destroy President Bush and congressional Republicans.

2) Despite all of that, Republicans took them on and defeated them, not just at the presidential level, but all down the ticket, picking up five House seats and four Senate seats.

Conclusion #1: Republicans have nothing to fear from Democrat/Extreme Media disinformation and scandalmongering.

3) The way Republicans took on the Democrats and defeated them was by running on a clear, specific agenda, the top two domestic planks of which were Social Security private accounts and breaking the unprecedented, unconstitutional Donk filibuster of the President's appellate court nominees. Put another way, the GOP gave its base something to vote for, and it turned out in record numbers that, even then, were only barely enough to overcome the other side's cheating, big bucks, and dirty tricks.

Conclusion #2: The only thing that can derail Republican hegemony is a craven retreat from, and abandonment of, the aforementioned domestic platform issues.

This is precisely what the Democrats are trying to intimidate the Republicans into doing.

Seems nakedly obvious, doesn't it?

So why does it look like elected Republicans are taking that bait?

I haven't a clue.

I thought of this when I read Hugh Hewitt's morning mental ablutions:

[T]here is rising anger among Republican activists and donors with the perceived dithering on judges in the Senate. It has been five months since the sweeping wins of November and three months since the Senate convened. But only one of the filibustered appeals court nominees has even cleared committee - a second might do so today - and despite Majority Leader Frist's repeated declarations that he has the votes to end the filibuster, no clear schedule has been laid out that details when that vote will occur, and the MSM is doing its best to raise doubts about the reliability of Senator Frist's 50 votes. Reports of compromise discussions and senators' worries over "tradition" have become a staple of the political press.

The result is that the GOP is in real danger of alienating a significant slice of its activist base - a base that has gladly contributed to the campaigns of new senators John Thune, Saxby Chambliss, Jim Talent, John Cornyn, John Sununu, Norm Coleman, Lindsey Graham, Jim DeMint, Mel Martinez, Richard Burr, David Vitter, and Tom Coburn because it understood the need to add Republicans if the body was going to work. They gave to the individual campaigns and to the Senate Republican National Committee, and thousands volunteered long hours throughout the last two cycles. The base also worked hard and contributed to the re-election of many others.

Now it is being ignored or, worse, condescended to with pull quotes on the need to look beyond the immediate impasse. Talk of senators "studying" precedents and of the "cooling saucer" role of the "greatest deliberative body" in the world have gone from merely annoying to the source of genuine estrangement. This is not what they signed up for, and the tipping-away point will be reached shortly if it hasn't been already.

Put bluntly: If the GOP loses or refuses the battle over the filibuster, it will lose the 2006 Senate elections, a set of contests it could actually win if the base thought there was any point to winning elections. [my emphases]


I couldn't begin to guess why or how elected Pachyderms can't grasp this, why or how they think that yet another attempt to appease their foes is remotely necessary, and why or how stiffing their own supporters - who specifically elected them to do the very things from which they are now recoiling - will at all benefit them politically, even in the short term.

Maybe they are getting an inkling of festering grassroots disgruntlement, judging by Rick Santorum's reassurances on SS private accounts and this report that Bill Frist may "hasten the filibuster showdown."

But, as it should have been directed at "Dirty Harry" and co. from day one, so this gauntlet is thrown down before the 'Pubbies those 'rats have cowering in needless fear: "Don't sing it - bring it."

UPDATE: "Sailor" McCain has sold out:

MATTHEWS: But bottom line, would you vote for what’s called the “nuclear option,” to get rid of the filibuster rule on judgeships?

McCAIN: No I will not.

MATTHEWS: You will stick with the party?

McCAIN: No, I will vote against the nuclear option.

MATTHEWS: You will vote—

McCAIN: Against the nuclear option.

MATTHEWS: Oh, you will?

McCAIN: Yes.

Language alert: a PG-13ism is coming down the pike in five...four...three...two...one

As the Rice Crispies once said to George Carlin one morning, "Snap, crackle, fuck him."

Ed Morrissey's version was cleaner but no less vehement:

McCain was a brave man in Viet Nam. He became a craven politician a long time ago, however, and almost everything he's done since shows that he hasn't changed a bit. If I still lived in Arizona, I'd be looking for ways to recall him from office immediately. It's time for the GOP to quit kissing McCain's ass and apply another extremity to it with noticeable force - and to strip him of his committee assignments as soon as possible. Let him switch parties if he likes. He's useless and a disgrace as a Republican.

Gee, I've been saying that for years now. Glad to see more Pachyderms coming around to my way of thinking on this quisling. Pity it took the mother of all betrayals to make it this obvious.

Pity as well that Senator Frist is unlikely to take the Cap'n's advice.

According to the WaPo (via Double-H), the Majority Leader will, with the backing of Senators Santorum and Allen, push for a near-term showdown on breaking the filibuster and restoring the will of the people as expressed at the polls last November. I'd like to take that as a sign that they can scrounge up the minimum fifty votes necessary for the rule change - I don't share Hewitt's optimism that a losing attempt would mollify the GOP base - but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

A bit 'o cage-rattling wouldn't hurt either.