The Washington Post top story today is about the Republicans talking again about changing the Senate rules to no longer allow filibusters for judicial nominees.
As the article clearly notes, this issue is coming up because the GOP wants to be able to replace ailing Chief Justice Rehnquist with WHOMEVER they want, to hell with the Democrats. What's troubling is that the GOP was starting to signal a few weeks ago that they maybe they WEREN'T going to try to curtail filibusters. Then the radical right flipped out, and now the GOP AGAIN wants to stop the filibuster.
First lesson here. This issue is back in the news because the radical right WANTS it, and that's why the GOP is pushing it.
Second lesson here. They're pushing it because it's part of their larger strategy to create a judicially-enforced theocracy in our country.
There is only ONE thing that blocked the radical right and their supporters from keeping blacks sub-human in the eyes of the law, it was the courts. And in the case of gays, it's the same thing. The courts come to the rescue when the majority simply wants to oppress. The same thing applies with flag burning, abortion, the Ten Commandments and the rest of their ridiculous agenda. The law of the land, the logic of the land, the words of our founders do NOT support their radical agenda once you take the issue away from the hot-headed politicians and put it under the fair-minded scrutiny of independent judges.
So the only way for the radical right to GET their agenda and IMPOSE it on the rest of the country PERMANENTLY is to get rid of the obstacle of the independent judiciary. And their best chance to do that is with their lapdog George Bush over the next four years.
Bush will appoint whomever the radical right wants to the Supreme Court, and once that happens, we're stuck with that wacko for the next 30-40 years, and we're stuck with the rulings of that wacko for even longer. Even if the Dems take back Congress in 2-4 years, and reinstitute the filibuster, it will be too late. Bush's radical right judges will ALREADY be on the court, and the damage will be done. There is a window of opportunity for extremism, and the radical right is trying to seize it. The only thing standing in the way of Bush packing the court with radical right wackos is the Democrats and their filibuster.
Now do you see why the radical right FORCED the GOP to continue fighting to take away the right to filibuster?
The Post article today does a brilliant job of up front showing how the GOP and the radical right are simply outright lying about the facts in this issue. The Post reports that the Democrats blocked only 10 of the president's 229 judicial appointments in Bush's first term. Let me quote what the Post has to say about that record:
"Confirmation of Bush nominees exceeds in most cases the first-term experience of presidents dating to Ronald Reagan."So the truth is that the Democrats have been better about approving judicial nominees than EVEN THE REPUBLICANS WERE UNDER BILL CLINTON. So basically the Republicans are lying about this issue, and the radical right is lying about this issue. They are doing what they always do - lie about the issue enough to give the lie truth in the minds of the public.
So where are the Democrats? Well, so far they've said they'll oppose the change in the filibuster rule. But there's concern, according to the Post article, that the Dems don't want to appear "obstructionist," so they may not even use the filibuster option even if they retain it, regardless of what wacko Bush tries to appoint.
This is the kind of government you get when good men and women don't stand up for their principles. Bush and the GOP in Congress can lie about the truth, pretend our soldiers have body armor, tell us Iraq is really going quite well, and suggest that Bush had no information suggesting Osama was targeting America, and the Democrats simply go along for the ride, nodding happily like the little plastic dog in the back window of your car.
It's time for the Democrats to stand up for themselves. It's time for them to fight back. Worrying about obstruction is what cost them several Senate seats and the presidency just a few weeks ago. Do the Dems really believe that if they simply roll over and play dead Rush Limbaugh and the bad Republicans will simply STOP criticizing them? You've gotta be kidding.
It's time our party woke up and realized that the Republicans are going to criticize us no matter what. They're going to call us angry no matter way. They're going to call us liberal and pro-gay and pro-abortion and pro-union no matter what. Nothing we do is going to stop their incessant harping and their incessant lying. So we should stop trying to stop them and start trying to be ourselves and stand up for our principles and our values and our beliefs.
And the first place to do that is to stand up against the GOP thugs' effort to pack our courts with un-Democratic un-American theocrats. We need our party to start defending us and itself.
