Kicking the can and the voters

Intemperate Thoughts ^ | 5/27/2005 | George Mortensen

[mort56]

For the past couple of days, the mainstream press has been all atwitter, praising the end of acrimony in Washington, DC. Politicians of both stripes are slapping each other on the back for a job well done and any American with half a brain is wondering if any of these people live in the real world or if they honestly believe the voters have no brains.

The “moderates” in the Senate fashioned a judicial compromise on the country. Fourteen Senators of both parties, fourteen percent of our elected officials in the “cooling saucer” that is the United States Senate have decided what was good enough for eighty six percent of the American population. They decided that elections do not matter, they do. They decided that they and only they know what’s good for America. They have decided that the people now up for judicial positions, who have had media attention, should get a vote. Unfortunately, the flip side of this compromise is that those who do not have any public relations face are on their own and at the mercy of every political jackal.

As scurrilous and hypocritical as this deal was, at least all of President Bush’s judicial nominees found out where they stand with these pompous, preening peacocks. The American people found out where they stood as well. The Constitution doesn’t matter. What matters are the Senate’s “rules”. What matters is comity in the old boy’s club, where principle can be jettisoned as quickly as a donor whose check has bounced.

Our Senator’s lives were becoming uncomfortable. Oh, the humanity! They might have actually had to make a difficult decision; they might have actually had to make vote that could have caused them some loss in popularity. So they choose their usual route. They hid behind closed doors, and decided to choose who the winners and losers would be. And then, like the self agrandizing little men they are, they all proceeded to race to the nearest camera to pat each other on their collective backs. To cover their dirty little tracks, they cried that without this compromise, the very foundations of Republic would have been in jeopardy. They congratulated themselves on saving America.

What utter hogwash! What utter hubris!

The Republic was not in any peril and all who claim this absurdity should be shown for the fools and/or knaves they are. Anyone with even a modicum of intelligence, who has been exposed to life outside current government schooling…hell... anyone who has taken the time to read the Constitution can see through this charade.

What really happened is that these “moderates” balked on their Constitutional responsibility and kicked the can down the road. In the process, they handed a victory to the forces of obstruction.

This deal was not about saving the Republic; it was about abortion politics and the coming fight for the Supreme Court, but the fools who fashioned it are either too stupid to know or too venal to tell the truth. It was about whether elections really matter and whether these “moderates” trusted the voters. It is obvious that they do not and to portray it any other way is ludicrous.

In the end, future judicial nominees of either party were sold down the river. The “rights” of those who wish to continue to obstruct the work in Congress were preserved, the media’s favorite Republican, John McCain, got in yet another swing at President Bush and the only winners, as usual, are those who would feed freely at the public trough for their own personal power and personal rewards.

The rest of us and the Constitution took it in the shorts!