Fighting Fire With Fire, Finally

Where have I been the past few days? Well, I could say I was swamped Friday, exhausted yesterday, sufficiently recovered to begin a post last night only to be interrupted by an invite to try out a new pizza place, after which I returned home and conked out again. Or I could say that I was on a Non-Official Cover assignment for Section 31 of Starfleet Intelligence. Only with the last one I'd have to call a reporter and let them know first so they could pass the message on to a high-ranking official in the Federation President's office. I'm sure he'd know what to do with it.

Besides, nobody would buy the first version anyway.

Meanwhile, back in 2005 and the U.S. Senate, it's still business as usual.

Two Democratic senators suggested Thursday they may block one or more of President Bush's nominees to key Environmental Protection Agency posts unless they get answers they want from the agency.

Senator Barack Obama, D-IL, said he wanted to know when the EPA would issue regulations for lead paint exposure from house remodeling. ...

Obama told reporters after the hearing that he wanted a definite date from EPA officials about when they would issue the regulations, which by law were supposed to have come out in 1996. If that's not forthcoming, he said, he would use "whatever mechanisms I have available to get their attention."

Senator Barbara Boxer, D-CA, indicated she might block one of the nominees unless she gets details on an EPA list of 103 Superfund sites where the agency has suggested human exposure is possible. She said she wants the sites listed in order of health hazard, along with details on cleanup costs and how many children live nearby.

Don't blame Osama Obama (Don't freak, that's a Ted Kennedy line) or the Boxer Rebel for this crud. Blame Majority Leader Bill Frist, who failed to slam the door shut on minority-led filibusters at the beginning of this Congress and then let himself get submarined by the grandstanding McCain Mutiny and their "memo of understanding." No, the above aren't filibusters per se, but through Fristy's inaction the notion has become entrenched that Democrats can pull these shenanigans whenever they want without fear of rebuke or reprisal. It's another manifestation of what I've maintained for months, that the Democrats, though deep in the minority, are still effectively running the country.

The lesson has been learned: "the James Carville tactics of total political warfare on all fronts" work. The only way to change the dynamic is for Republicans to take steps to "toss their sabots into the machinery" of Democrat obstruction by ensuring that the DisLoyal Opposition must incur a cost for their "banzai charges."

Thursday afternoon the first step was taken.

The partisan fight over Karl Rove exploded onto the Senate floor yesterday, with Democrats trying to strip him of his security clearance and Republicans retaliating by trying to strip the chamber's two top Democrats of theirs.

The moves, which came as amendments to a spending bill, both failed, but not before each side blamed the other for "juvenile" behavior and for poisoning a well of good feelings they said had existed in the past few weeks....

Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, along with Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and three other top Democrats, called for the end of security clearance for anyone "who discloses, or has disclosed, classified information, including the identity of a covert agent of the Central Intelligence Agency, to a person not authorized to receive such information."...

Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, called Democrats' amendment "purely a political amendment" and then submitted his own.

It would have stripped clearance from federal officeholders who make "reference to a classified Federal Bureau of Investigation report on the floor of the United States Senate, or any federal officeholder that makes a statement based on a FBI agent's comments which is used as propaganda by terrorist organizations thereby putting our servicemen and women at risk."

The former is a reference to Mr. Reid, who mentioned the FBI file of one of Mr. Bush's judicial nominees, and the latter is a reference to Mr. Durbin, whose comparison of U.S. interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay to Nazi and Soviet regimes was cited in Middle Eastern press, including al-Jazeera.

Allow me to say, "Bravo, Mr. Frist!" It's about time you and your caucus stopped taking the other side's relentless abuse and started acting like the majority.

And allow me to say to Ed Morrissey, "You still don't get it, do you?"

Here's what the Cap'n had to say:

At least 20 Republicans had the good sense to oppose the latter measure. The Democrats' amendment failed on a strictly partisan vote. The competing measures not only make the entire chamber look like a gaggle of childish and petulant fools, but it belies the entire idea that "comity" will return to this body under current leadership, especially that of the Democrats.

First, I wouldn't necessarily call that "good sense," particularly with reference to Reid, whose Senate floor leak of the contents of Henry Saad's FBI dossier should have gotten him expelled from the Senate altogether, and at least censured and driven from his "leadership" post. He never did have to pay a price for that, and this would have been a downpayment on the hell he has coming for that caper.

The point Mr. Morrissey is missing is that if the battle that must be won is taking place in a mud pit, it's kinda difficult not to get any of it on ya. The Democrat amendment was indeed childish and petulant, and never had a chance of passing anyway. But it needed to be answered. The reason Dems keep engaging in these "childish and petulant" tactics, at least in part, is because they are never made to pay a price for doing so. And even here the GOP didn't levy a tangible cost against the pointless swipe at Karl Rove, but at least they sent a message of just how easily and painfully they could have retaliated against, in this case, Dirty Harry and Ali-Dickbar al-Durbini. And that next time the response might not be just a message.

It'd be nice if Democrats could take the hint of their electoral reverses of the past few election cycles, but that obviously isn't happening. The only alternative is to use our majority power to play as much political hardball as is necessary to slap them down into submission.

It's either that, or continue to let them run the country via bullying and intimidation, and otherwise take up space until our base gives up and the Democrats get back the keys to the kingdom officially. Seems to me averting that fate is worth the temporary sacrifice of a little dignity.

Now if it can just be followed up with a successful breaking of the inevitable Dem SCOTUS filibuster (and a recess appointment of John Bolton as Ambassador to the UN), the venerable Tennessee physician just might get both his jewels back.

Hey, intact but withered is better than none at all.