Taking the Valiant Elephant to School

Somebody activated a flag over at Blogs for Bush with my name on it, it appears. I tried to post a reply to another commenter and my comment was rejected for "questionable content." This condition persisted even after thorough sanitization.

A technical glitch, perhaps? Or is it my refusal to be a blind, pom-pom-waving, rote-spouting incense burner to the Golden Pachyderm these days? Only Matt Margolis' hairdresser knows for sure.

Anyway, I reproduce my comment here, in its original "unsanitized" form.

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ME: And when they do, and if Frist invokes the Byrd Option, he'll lose, and his, and the Republicans', humiliation, and de facto return to minority status, will be complete.

YOU: You must hope this transpires.

Um...no.

You've been predicting and predicting and predicting....what would happen if you were wrong?

In this case, I'd be overjoyed.

All it would take would be for 2 of the 7 back stabbing RINOs (the ones deserving of half the blame for failure to change Senate rules to reflect historical precedent....the other half being the Democrats) to come to their senses.

Yes, it would. You just consider that outcome to be a lot more attainable than I do.

Will you feel foolish for your constant predictions of doom and gloom?

Well, you certainly look foolish for your persistent refusal to acknowledge the reality that sits inches in front of your nose.

I'm simply pointing out what is, as opposed to what I'd like to see - something I resolved to do after spending the whole of 1996 insisting to anybody who'd listen that poor ol' Bob Dole was going to be the next POTUS. And the facts are that after building a double-digit Senate majority on the promise to break the Donk filibuster and get the President's judges an up or down vote, Bill Frist (aka Dr. Doofus) squandered all that momentum for the first four months of the session, was finally forced by a grassroots rebellion (that you and quite a few other feckless cheerleaders in this neighborhood didn't support) to move towards the Byrd Option, and then let himself get submarined at the last minute in a move led by John McCain and masterminded by Trent Lott that was telegraphed for upwards of two weeks to such a flagrant extent that only Fristy appears to have missed that something was brewing "behind the scenes."

Now that the damage has been done, the weak-minded signatories all have a vested interest in not looking like the fools they've made of themselves. It's always possible that the Democrats will overplay their hand, as has been their want the past few years, by filibustering every nominee other than Owen, Brown, and Pryor. If they don't, the "seven dwarves" have no reason to vacate the "deal"; if they do, McCain and his "crew" won't have enough of a reason to change their minds unless (perhaps) Frist forces the issue by going for the Byrd Option despite lacking the votes to uphold it.

I'd love to see him do it; at worst, it would simply make official what is already the de facto status quo. At best, it might peel off two of the seven and regain majority status for the majority we elected.

However, and no matter how much you don't want to hear this, there is simply nothing in Bill Frist's entire tenure as Majority Leader that persuades me that he has this level of testicular fortitude.

He's more than welcome to pleasantly surprise me, but I'll still believe it only when I see it. And even then, I'll do a couple of double-takes.

Or is your entire point simply to blame all Republicans for the bad behavior of a few?

I haven't blamed "all" Republicans. I have blamed the so-called leadership, most especially Dr. Frist. The very fact that an eighth of his own caucus thought so little of him as to fly the coop and cut a sucker deal with the other side after he spent weeks proclaiming the principle of "every nominee should get an up or down vote" ought to be the flourescent-green handwriting on the wall that Fristy is a complete bust as Majority Leader. The reason why is sublimely simple: His own caucus doesn't respect him, and doesn't fear him.

Do I have to point out again how a humiliation like this happening to LBJ or Mike Mansfield or George Mitchell or, yep, Sheets Byrd - all strong Majority Leaders and all Democrats - would have been inconceivable? They knew how to wield power and, when necessary, crack the whip on their caucus. Something that cannot be said without soiling oneself in laughter for Frist or his three knock-kneed predecessors of the preceding quarter century (Baker, Dole, and Lott).

I suppose Frist is a slight improvement in that he's not an active collaborator like his aforementioned forebears in the ML job, but he still got blindsided AND fleeced. The very fact that Frist did not invoke party loyalty/discipline on this issue, which was an open invitation to "Sailor" and his band of pirates, hermetically sealed him in the "numbnut" category for all time.

Hey, maybe the man who has held many a life in his capable surgeon's hands can pull a rabbit out of his hat. I'd elbow people out of the way to be the first to give him three cheers if he does.

But if there was a betting line on this question, that isn't where the money would be flowing.

UPDATE 6/4: Just posted a comment over at B4B. Last night's mishap must have been a technical glitch.