Posted on 10/20/2005 1:15:35 PM PDT by Pukin Dog
“The army is not properly equipped for an invasion of an enemy's territory. It lacks much of the material of war, is feeble in transportation, the animals being much reduced, and the men are poorly provided with clothes, and in thousands of instances are destitute of shoes. Still we cannot afford to be idle, and though weaker than our opponents in men and military equipments, must endeavor to harass, if we cannot destroy them. I am aware that the movement is attended with much risk, yet I do not consider success impossible, and shall endeavor to guard it from loss.” – Robert E. Lee (September 3, 1862 – Letter to Jefferson Davis)
Last week, with considerable difficulty, I posted that I had changed my mind and decided to support the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. I hope that this post will help some of you understand why this nomination must be supported until it is either withdrawn or it succeeds in gaining Senate confirmation.
I make no bones about the fact that I believe that the nomination of Harriet Miers is a very, very large mistake by the Bush administration, probably the biggest mistake that they have made in office. I believe the choice to have been one made in the heat of battle, under duress and strain over the surprise decline of prior selections, against the goal of completing Senate confirmation before the end of November. A selection of a willing candidate had to be made, and the President mis-stepped in rushing to select Harriet Miers without proper vetting.
So, in light of that, (which is all true) why am I now suggesting that Harriet Miers should be supported?
Because this is war.
We Conservatives are at the brink of victory, where the enemy is most dangerous. Just as you have seen in Iraq, at the time of nearing victory is exactly the time when the enemy becomes more violent and deadly in their attacks. It is not because we are losing the war, that we find our leaders either attacked in the media, or worse; the continued attempts to criminalize Conservatives through the legal system. It is happening because we are winning.
We are winning in spite of the fact that our Conservative Army is in very, very bad condition after years of battle against our Liberal opponent. Our leadership in the Senate consists mostly of tired, beaten, scared members, most of them unwilling to take the fight to the enemy for fear of losing the ground they have gained.
In any war, it is always a goal to destroy leadership first. You target and attack the enemies Generals as a common early tactic. Our enemies have never been able to defeat the likes of Tom Delay or Karl Rove on the battlefield of ideas, so they now seek to remove them from the war altogether through continued attempts to remove them from their winning positions. The enemy if successful can weaken our leader by removing his warriors from the fight. Our enemies understand the unfortunate truth that there are only a few true warriors left in our political army, and if they can get to them (through our failure to protect their flank) they can then gain ground simply by limiting our ability to attack them. No war is won on the defense, and on the defense is where we are. We are not on the defense because of the decisions of one George W. Bush; we are on the defense because his Army is tired and weak, and also there are phony among them.
Anyone who believes that an Arlen Specter or a John McCain is going to fight to the death for Conservative principles is an absolute fool. If you think that Trent Lott or Orrin Hatch won’t sell your Conservatism down the river for another 6 years feeding at the public troth then respectfully, you are dumber than dirt.
In war, you must have no weak areas for the enemy to attack, and we have a lot of them. We attack Bush for signing Campaign Finance reform much more than we attack John McCain for creating it. We attack Bill Frist for not going Nuclear; instead of attacking the RINOs who would have obviously defeated the measure had Frist tried it.
In the Miers nomination, I believe the President looked at his situation, and the conditions of his troops, and took the path of Robert E. Lee; choosing not to lose, when faced with a situation where the condition of his troops made it impossible for him to win. In doing so, he repeated a mistake that many, many leaders have made before him. He made a decision from weakness, and that cannot be denied.
We can (and should) attack George Bush when he makes poor decisions from a weak position, but now is the time to attack those who put him in the weak position to begin with. You can’t really blame the Democrats, because they are who they are. We know their tactics and should be better prepared for them. You can’t blame the RINOs for the same reason. If you know your enemy, then there is no excuse for allowing him victories against you.
So where does that leave us?
As has been made clear before; “You go to war with the Army you’ve got, not the one you want”. That is where we are. Right now, we may not feel so great about our Army, but are we going to let them be defeated because we don’t agree with their tactics and methods? Sure, we can stand back and wait, or leap from the train because we are mad at the conductor, or we can dance with the one who brought us, people.
Now, forgive my over-use of clichés, but that’s the best I can do at the moment.
We voted for the man, we stood with him and defeated our enemies at every turn. Victory is near, and our enemy has ramped up their attacks, hoping we will shrink from the fight.
Let us stay the course, and stay on the side of President Bush. He is not a perfect man, but he is our man. In war, sometimes that just has to be enough. Now can we lower our voices enough to remember what side we are on in this fight? Every one of us has the right to criticize the general direction our leadership is taking at the moment. Whether it is spending, the borders, Miers, Iraq, whatever. We should never forget that those in Washington work for us, and are subject to our approval. That does not mean however, that we should help our enemies defeat us by handing over our leaders at gunpoint.
I believe the debate can only strengthen us, but we should keep it as debate and not open warfare against our side. The war for Conservative ideas will not be won during the term of our current President, but I think if we want more and better Generals down the road, we need to stand with this one.
Win or lose, I’m standing with President Bush.
It's a very interesting read.
Yes, and thank you for making your point with grace, instead of the utter nonsense some have responded with.
Same goes for Colin Powell and others like him.
I'm a believer in vanity posts, as it gives the little guy an opportunity to get a voice. This forum allows it, some members don't care for it, and I love it!
I donated over a hundred dollars to FR last year in support of free speech by not just the in's, but the common pukes, even pukin' dogs.
If our paths ever cross, allow me to buy you a bier, then lets talk football!
Blast the Dems for having litmus tests, blast the Gang of 14 for stabbing the President in the back, and then urge the President to force a fight. That type of attack is directed outward rather than inward, but accomplishes the same goal.
Yep, that's it...blame everyone and thing except the one that actually made the nomination.
bump
You're welcome, and come on back any time you want.
I agree with you, Pukin, and thank you for writing your thoughts. Anyone who believes that an Arlen Specter or a John McCain is going to fight to the death for Conservative principles is an absolute fool.
Have you gotten a fundraising letter from Cristine Todd Whitman yet? It is gob-smackingly bold. www.mypartytoo.com
From the letter:
"The battle for the heart of the Republican Party and the future of America starts now!"
--snip--
"As a fellow moderate [not true, btw] will you join in the fight to bring the Republican party back to the middle?"
---snip--
"Make no mistake about it, a heated high stakes battle is raging within the Republican Party between its far right faction and its moderate wing (made up of leaders like [my bold] Senator John McCain and Moyor Rudy Giuliani) and the outcome will be momentous for both the part and the country as a whole." --on and on for four pages---
PD; you're advocating an approach that a lot of people here aren't capable of handling.
If some FReepers here were in Eisenhower's place, they would've tossed Patton overboard after the slapping incidents.
Well, IMO, Ike DID need a good smacking or two... but that's another topic.
By the way, you forgot to ping the list.
Fact is that if Harriet Miers is voted down with at least some Senators on the RIGHT voting Nay, then that will give the Gang of 14 and the 'Rats an excuse to filibuster Janice Rogers Brown, Edith Jones, Priscilla Owen, etc. The President will be politically weaker and any chance to go "nucular" will be over.
@@@@@
I do not understand why all the anti-Miers conservative Intellectuals do not get this. They are making the dems arguments day after day after day. They are weakening the entire possibility of ever bringing known conservative nominees before a Senate committee!
And I'm sure the Dems twisting of the process, and the wimpiness of the Republican Gang of 7, had nothing to do with limiting Bush's options....
Maybe you just want revenge. Some of us would like to actually accomplish something.
How many RINOs did President Bush support in the primaries over more conservative opponents? He limited his own options when he decided to help keep the Senate full of RINOs.
Maybe you just want revenge. Some of us would like to actually accomplish something.
No, maybe I want a, supposedly, conservative President to start acting like one.
We won the house in 1994 and the cry was, "give us the whole congress, then we can really do something!"
We won the whole congress and the cry was, "give us the Presidency too, then we can really do something!"
We won the Presidency and now the cry is, "give us a super majority, then we can really do something!"
I'm sorry, the time to pony up is now. We've done everything the Republican party has asked of us and what have gotten in return? We've gotten bupkus.....nothing.
You guys are just throwing a tantrum. You didn't get what you wanted. So rather than trying to figure out logically how to actually get it, you're just going to scream and shout and attack the person who has made you mad. And at the end of the day, you will have accomplished nothing other than making yourself feel better by venting.
True enough, I guess.
Sorry to see your rants going away. I was looking forward to the massive F-35 "I told you so."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.