It’s Time to Start Playing Like We’ve Got a Lead…

Last time I checked, we won the last election by a comfortable margin. (Please note the use of the word “comfortable.”) We won the Presidency and further extended our majorities in both houses of Congress. We’re running the town, yet this President still can’t get judicial nominees out of committee.
Now, some of you may be thinking, “Judicial nominees?? Big deal!!” In reality, they truly are. One of the few true legacies modern presidents have is in their appointments to the Federal bench. This truly is a big deal, and it should have been worked out by now. Should have been.
The party in the minority, the Democrats, aren’t letting the nominations out of committee for a vote. The Dems have engaged in a filibuster and are preventing the ten nominees from being voted on, one way or the other. To hear the Democrats talk about it, it’s as if the Republicans are trying to put an end to the entire democratic process of the Legislative Branch. They have been referring to the potential Republican tactic of voting to change the Senate rules as the “nuclear option,” and nothing could be further from the truth.
What the Republicans want to do is stop the filibuster for judicial nominees ONLY. That’s it. They do not want to end legislative filibusters at all, nor has there been any attempt to. There is no provision for filibustering in the Constitution of the United States of America, nor has it been a long-standing tradition.
Rules in the Senate are set from Congress to Congress. This means that this year’s Congress could have different rules from next year’s, and all it takes is a simple majority to effect a change. I was always taught that “to the victor goes the spoils.” We won and we’ve got the majority, so it’s about time we started using it.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has given every opportunity to the Democrats and Minority Leader Harry Reid, but enough is enough. They’re stalling, and it’s time we gave them a kick in their complacency. We wouldn’t be going “nuclear” on them, we’d be going Constitutional…and there’s no way they can stop us from doing it.
Well, no one but Al Gore, apparently.
AlGorezeera was speaking in an event sponsored by MoveOn WhineOn.org (although the AP story by Donna Cassata didn’t mention that until the next to last paragraph) and took on the GOP tactics:

“What makes it so dangerous for our country is their willingness to do serious damage to our American democracy in order to satisfy their lust for one-party domination of all three branches of government,” Gore said of the GOP in a speech. “They seek nothing less than absolute power.”

Serious damage? What the hell is this fruit-loop talking about?!?! Lust for domination? Absolute power? No…it’s about Constitutional use of Government–something the Administration he served in would know next to nothing about. I personally would like to know why he’s even bringing this up because no one cares about what he has to say. I bring it up because I get to make fun of him, but outside of me and a few other political geeks, no one cares. Gore would do better to stay out of this and let Harry Reid keep sticking his foot in his mouth.
Al Gore has about as much political capital as Estes Kefauver does right now—and Estes Kefauver has been dead for forty two years.
We’ve got the political capital. We’ve got the votes. We’ve got the legal means to get this done. If the Republicans really want to get these people to the floor for a vote…if they really want to get these people to the bench for the president…if they really want to be the party in power, then they need to act and govern like the party in power.
The Democrats have engaged in half-truths and distortions–big shock–and it will come back to bite them…just as it it did this past November at the polls.
It’s the start of the fourth quarter and we’re up by several touchdowns at this stage in the game. It’s time to start playing like we’ve got a lead…
…because we DO.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com