"After a little thought, the RATS have already lost Bigtime on this issue. Once people step back and think about what happened and how it happened they are going to realize the judge issue is a Major issue, the political pressure on the RINOS who back down will cause them to lose their jobs. It's as simple as that. The new special interest group is the blogger and their followers. One by one we will take them down." ~ John Lenin
I totally agree. In fact, Rush was making that point all last week. Here's an excerpt of what he said Friday:
Democrats Remain in Quicksand March 25, 2005
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is a fascinating story, fascinating story. It's an AP story. It starts out this way: "Majority Leader Bill Frist messaged his fellow Republican senators privately by saying Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Democrats have been very helpful throughout.
He was referring here to negotiations on legislation designed to save Terri Schiavo." Now, that was in the Senate.
The atmosphere's a little different in the House, though. "Democratic opponents wanted extra time for debate and an on-the-record vote last weekend before allowing the final bill to pass. The attitude marked an exception for a minority not accustomed to muting its opposition, a reflection of Schiavo's personal tragedy and the desire of many Democratic lawmakers to support the bill or at least avoid opposing it.
One Democratic aide, talking to the AP on condition of anonymity said, 'The party didn't want to be on the wrong side of the culture of life,'" so they went silent in the Senate. They didn't want a voice vote. They wanted a unanimous consent vote so there wasn't any kind of recorded vote or voice vote, so they would not have to take a stand on it because they weren't sure where they were going to come down vis-à-vis public opinion on this.
If you add to that their hope that the Republicans would wind up paying a political price by offending large segments of the electorate out of a desire to appeal to social conservatives, you have the recipe that the Democrat strategists came up with: Let's stand silent; let's let the Republicans kill themselves on this. Let them impale themselves. Let's let the Republicans pander to the social conservatives -- i.e. the wacko holy rollers -- and we'll just sit idly by not saying anything and stay out of the fray and we'll benefit that way.
This second Democratic aide, speaking, again, on condition of anonymity, explaining the strategy, said, "That's why we've just been sort of keeping our mouths shut on this. We want the Republicans to pay a price by offending large segments of the electorate."
So once again, here you have the Republicans taking a stand, taking a position, be it Social Security reform, be it whatever the issue, the Republicans have a plan, they've got an idea. Democrats sit back, trying not to offend anybody, so they don't take a position at all, hoping not that they will gain by something proactive, but, rather, that they will gain by virtue of the Republicans committing political suicide.
However, while all these Democrats are sitting around and not taking a stand and now comfortably standing behind public opinion polling, ----- which is dubious in its construction, if you ask me, ----- that shows a vast majority of Americans in favor of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube being removed and staying removed.
If you look at the Democrats, they think they made the right decision because they think now that the culture of life question is the -- well, their side of it is the right side based on these polls -- and that the Republicans have created some incredible harm, caused some incredible harm to themselves by taking a position on this.
Okay. So that's polls and that's strategy.
But then when the rubber meets the road and Democrats have to go out there and get elected, what do they usually do?
What did Tom Daschle do when he went back to South Dakota, his alleged home to run for re-election? He got pictures of hugging George Bush, supporting the war on terror.
What's Hillary Clinton doing now that she wants to become president? Why, she's trying to make people believe that she's pro-life. And all for faith-based people in government.
Interesting she hasn't taken this story and the occasion of this event to really cement that move, isn't it?
Is this move not ripe for Hillary Clinton? If she really wants to submit to people that her move to the right is substantive and genuine, what better opportunity than the Schiavo case to take a stand on religious people in government, faith-based programs in government, and her new-found respect for life vis-à-vis the abortion debate. She's amazingly silent on this.
Let me ask you this question, folks, purely hypothetical because it will never happen: If between now and the time Terri Schiavo passes away, if Hillary Clinton were to stand up and say, "I think that feeding tube needs to be reinserted," what do you think the reaction would be across the spectrum in this country? What effect would that have?
Just purely hypothetical. I don't know myself. I'm just posing it. What do you think the reaction would be on the left in this country to her? What do you think the reaction among the judiciary would be? What do you think the reaction among Democrats in Congress and the Senate would be? What do you think the reaction amongst the holy roller Christian conservatives would be?
You don't think they'd believe her? Mr. Snerdley thinks that nobody would believe her. Well, that would be a risk. She'd be running a huge risk if she came out and said that and didn't mean it. That would be... The hypothetical is she says it. If you want to think she doesn't mean it, then that's a fair assessment. That's consistent with the way Hillary Clinton is judged by others. Well, she hasn't spoken, so it's purely hypothetical. But again, she's not running for election anytime soon.
But there are two Democrat senators who are running for re-election in a year and a half. One of them is Kent Conrad from North Dakota. He faces a potentially difficult race in 2006. You know what he said of the Schiavo case? "Her parents want to give her a chance. I think of my own daughter. We ought to give her a chance."
So here's a Democrat who is sort of violating the policy strategy that the other Democrats have come up with, which is to remain silent and let the Republicans impale themselves on this.
Kent Conrad, facing re-election, is not listening to the polls. He's not paying attention to public opinion polls. Why, the one poll that matters to him is an election, and he's placed himself firmly on the side of Terri Schiavo in this case.
Senator Bill Nelson from Florida, also on the ballot in 2006, noted changes made from an earlier version of the legislation. He said he supported the bill so that this case can be heard again.
So here you have two Democrats running for re-election in tight races, and they're nowhere near where the other Democrats are on this, which is opposing the reinsertion of the feeding tube.
So you can talk to me all you want about polls and whether the Republicans have impaled themselves.
You can tell me all day long if you want, how the Republicans have cooked their own goose by pandering to their constituency here, but when the pedal hits the metal, when the rubber meets the road, when the cold is on the ice, when drugs are on Miami vice and Democrats need to get elected, what do they do? They move to the right.
It tells me, folks, just the opposite of what the Democrats think is going to happen. If there's going to be a backlash here come next election or two, it's the people who stood on the sideline and didn't do anything and implied opposition to the feeding tube being reinserted which will probably pay the greater and larger political price.
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(AP: Democrats gave GOP little fight on Schiavo)