At Her Finest
Peggy Noonan is at her finest in this piece in the Wall Street Opinion Journal, entitled, Mr. Narcissus Goes to Washington. This is just enough to make you go read the whole article:
“John McCain wryly reminded us not to miss A&E’s biography of his heroic Vietnam experience. Joe Lieberman referred to the group as “this band of brothers, and sisters.” But my favorite was Lindsey Graham, who said, “I know there will be folks ‘back home’ who will be angry, but that’s only because they’re not as sophisticated and high-minded as I am. Actually they’re rather stupid, which is why they’re not in the Senate and I am. But I have 3 1/2 years to charm them out of their narrow-minded resentments, and watch me, baby.”
Oh, excuse me, that’s not what he said. That’s only what he meant. It was the invisible scroll as he spoke. The CNN identifier that popped up beneath his head as he chattered, however, did say, “Conceited Nitwit Who Affects ‘Back Home’ Accent to Confuse the Boobs.”
Oh wait, that’s not what it said. It said, “R-South Carolina.” My bad.
Actually, what Mr. Graham said was, “People at home are gonna be mad at me for a while.” He said he decided to support the deal because “kids are dyin’ ” in Iraq, “Social Security is comin’ up,” and “this is a lot bigger than me.” If only he knew that is true.”
Red State, has a political battle plan to counteract the “deal”. The article is, The Judicial Confirmation Wars: What’s Next?. Here is the first point:
“Preemptively define the word “extraordinary” to mean just that. Filibusters that occur as a result of a difference in philosophical worldviews between a judicial nominee and a Senator or group of Senators are not “extraordinary.” They are run-of-the-mill. No one expects the nominees selected by a Republican President to be in accord with the views of the Democratic Senatorial Caucus. Therefore, filibusters that occur because of ideological differences should be considered entirely ordinary and not worthy of any heightened degree of concern.
This is important because immediately after the deal was announced, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid argued that “each filibuster is extraordinary.” His statement is a silly one because Logic screams at us that if all filibusters are extraordinary, then there is no such thing as “extraordinary.” There is just “ordinary.” Think of this as the “if everyone is special, that means no one is” line of argument rendered in an expressly political context.
The trouble is that while Logic may scream this conclusion at us, it still needs to be hammered home in the realm of public opinion. So Republicans must work to do just that. We should stress that if the filibuster is only to be used in “extraordinary” circumstances, then it follows that it should be used sparingly. And if it is not used sparingly, then the deal is being broken. We think that this deal–at its best–will make judicial filibusters safe, legal and rare. If the latter condition is not met–and the latter condition must be explicit–then there has been a breach. Public opinion must be prepared to accept that.”
This is a well thought out plan, and it should be implemented. Read the whole thing using the link above.
You have all heard the old cliche, Senators didn’t plan to fail, they failed because they didn’t have a plan.
