Special Congressman Billybob
South Carolina Ping
Posted on 04/16/2005 12:42:01 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
I’d never heard of a triple black dog double dare to infinity before last weekend. I learned about that fearsome fate from my five-year-old grandson, Mackenzie Watson. I understood it immediately because I was once a five-year-old boy. Plus, my family are willing to swear that I still have those tendencies.
To make a long story short, that black dog dare got Mackie in trouble at his kindergarten. He explained he never would have given himself a “swirly” except that another student made that dare. In this case, a swirly means to go in the boy’s bathroom, stick your head in the urinal, and run water on your hair.
These are the mechanics of a dare, doing something really dumb and self-destructive because of a challenge. It’s much the same whether one is dealing with males aged five, or aged fifty. That brings us to events in and around the US Senate last week
On Wednesday, Minority Leader Harry Reid and a gaggle of other Democrat Senators gathered on the steps of the Capitol to renew his threat to “shut down the Senate” if the Republicans there persist in what he calls the “nuclear option.” That option is actually the “constitutional option,” since for most of the 216 years that the Senate has been affirming federal judges, it has used a simple majority vote for that purpose, in accord with the power as defined by the Constitution.
The press covered that gaggle fairly well because regardless of the factual paucity of the meeting, it DID contain many Senators. One of them, featured by Reid, was Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. For some odd reason, neither of them mentioned that about 15 years ago, Lieberman proposed a modification of the filibuster rule so it would decline with successive votes, meaning that eventually every judge would receive a simple majority vote.
The following day, we conducted our March for Justice II, in the park nearest to the Senate wing of the Capitol. We offered a lot more facts about the history of the Senate and judicial nominees. But we could only muster two public officials: a Member of Congress and an Alabama Supreme Court Judge. Naturally, our press coverage was far less.
This subject will apparently come to a head in the Senate in about two weeks. The vote on the constitutional option cannot take place until an actual federal court nominee is on the floor. I expect that Senator Frist will lead with Janice Brown, judge of the California Supreme Court. She is a black woman who won reelection to that court with 82% of the vote in her last retention election. Her personal story, about beginning as a sharecropper’s daughter in Alabama and becoming a well-respected judge on one of the nation’s most important courts, is tremendously impressive.
Senator Frist will lead with Judge Brown because her background is uniquely impressive, and because she is one of those judges who believes that judges are bound to obey the law, not rewrite the law. In short, the Democrats will have the intention of defeating Judge Brown because they don’t like her jurisprudence. But because of her background, that will be a costly position to take.
I expect that the first floor vote on Judge Brown will be procedural, and will eliminate for all time the application of the filibuster to judicial nominations. Then, after an agreed period of debate lasting perhaps two days, Judge Brown will be confirmed to the federal bench. But that’s not what I came to talk about.
Will Senator Reid then “shut down the Senate”? Only if he is dumb as a bag of hammers. Only if he is dumb as my grandson Mackie when he got that triple black dog double dare to infinity. Only in this case, the person making the dare is applying it to himself. That unique circumstance appeared in the politically incorrect masterpiece, Blazing Saddles.
SHERIFF BART: (deep voice) Hold it. That next man makes a move, the n*gger gets it.
OLSON JOHNSON: Hold it men. He's NOT bluffing.
DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON: Listen to him men. He's just crazy enough to do it.
SHERIFF BART: (deep voice) Drop it or I swear 'll blow this n*gger's head all over this town.
SHERIFF BART: (high voice) Oh lordy lord! He's desperate. Do what he say! Do what he saaaaaay!
If Reid gets away with his threat to himself and the Senate, he’ll no doubt return to his office, shut the door, and say as Sheriff Bart did, “Boy, are they stupid.” But I predict that Reid, unlike Cleavon Little, will fail.
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
John / Billybob
I love the take on it. Very well done. Wish I'd written it.
I think you underestimate the stupidity of the Republican leadership in the Senate.
maybe a "swirly" is exactly what the US Senate needs.....all of em.
Yea, just like the "dareors" MADE Mackie stick his hed in the urinal---
I don't trust the squishy Republicans in the Senate to help Frist---McCain (not too brainy, this guy) has already said he will side with the dems--we know about Chafee, Snowe, Collins,----
Also, whenever the dems brag about all of the judges they have alread confirmed, it is never pointed out that these are local judges, not circuit court judges ---the important judges---
Loved the article---CongressmanBillyBob
"oh pleeeze don't throw me in the briar patch brer bear" say brer rabbit.
Hang on... you mean to say they're going to shut down the government...
Aren't they the group of folks who have been taxing me, starving a helpless woman, deporting a child refugee, and allowing psychos like McKinney, Kerry, and Schumer to be on the public teat for years?
Hell yes! Shut it down. At least until they can balance a checkbook.
Making a threat like that on April 15 (tax day) is adding insult after the injury.
Mitch McConnell was on the floor of the Senate today putting that information into the record. He even gave the exact date WHEN THE DEMOCRATS CHANGED THE RULE .. so the dems have no excuse. They are lying and they know it .. but they are counting on the sheeple now knowing the truth. All the repubs have to do is replay the video of McConnell's statement - over and over and over.
"Will Senator Reid then “shut down the Senate”? Only if he is dumb as a bag of hammers"
AWESOME! EXCELLENT. But...
One minor correction: Bag of hammers and SICKLES....
LOL
Thanks for the ping upchuck. Didn't one just get approved this past week for the DC Circuit? Also, I think something over 30 CA nominations have been approved. Not sure why the Dems are so adamant about going to war over an obviously well qualified black woman. Doesn't seem to be the right place to draw your line in the sand.
This evening, my 8yo daughter will be getting a small lecture from her dad about the silliness of swallowing a "... dog ... dare ..."
I've been looking for such an opportunity - before she gets much closer to being a super-intelligent teenager.
Of course taking on Janice Rogers Brown is stoopid, but these guys aren't too smart---they still insist that the reason they have lost the last bunch of elections is because the didn't get their message out---they won't admit that their message, SUCKS!!!
BTW, I don't think Reid is smart enough to be coordinating all of this, I think that Soros is behind this as well as the war on the confirmation of John Bolton---I think it is all tied together--obstructionism deluxe---
There are at least 3 Secretary positions on hold because senators have put a hold on them---just because they can.
I just posted on a Bolton thread, that I wouldn't put it past Soros to be in cahoots with the Islamofascists like Bin Ladin(if he is still alive), to try to take down America from within, using our laws, freedoms, and political system to do it---
Soros has no allegiance to any country, and that counts America!!!
Just a note---Fox News is going to show Tom Delay's speech at the NRA Convention, LIVE tonight at 8:00 central time.
Pass it on---
Delay even has Tom Tancredo asking him to step down, now!!!
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