Posted on 05/24/2005 3:36:16 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan had no kind words for Sen. John McCain this morning on the Don Imus radio program.
Buchanan said that Bill Frist had the votes to override the filibuster, but that McCain, with his "deal," in essence supported the Democratic filibuster and took the leadership of the Senate away from Frist.
Buchanan told Imus that with a change in the rules, President Bush's judicial nominees would have sailed through the Senate, that any Supreme Court nominees would sail through the Senate, and that "the great battle for the supreme Court was about to be won today" – except for the efforts of the "McCain Seven," who, Buchanan believes, have sold out the positions of the president, Sen. Frist and the entire base of the Republican Party.
That's quite a lot to heap on the shoulders of those seven Republican senators (Snowe, DeWine, Warner, Collins, McCain, Chafee and Graham) who cut this deal with the Democrats – but Buchanan isn't convinced the deal has to go through.
He told Imus, "If I were Senators Allen and Frist, I would say, 'Senator McCain, you've cut your deal with the Democrats and that's fine, but you haven't cut any deal on our behalf.
"'We've got seven judges here, and we're going to vote them all out of committee, and we're going to bring them to the floor [of the Senate], and every one of them is going to get an up-or-down vote.
"'If the Democrats filibuster, we're going to try to invoke cloture, and you can vote with Harry Reid and Ted Kennedy if you want - all four times.'"
This would present a problem for McCain and his ambitions. Buchanan added, "If they do that, McCain will then be forced either to go with the Republicans, and vote to break the filibuster ... or he votes with the Democrats, in which case he will cut his own throat, repeatedly, in his desire to be the Republican nominee [for president].
"Frist and Allen and the others are in the catbird seat, as long as they've got the nerve to stand up and say these fellas have cut the deal, it's nice to have the three judges, but we do not accept the deal that denies us [the other] four."
In other words, Frist and the others have to stand up for not only the Republican Party but also for Frist’s own leadership.
"If they don't do it, they're in effect ceding the decisive leadership in the Senate – Frist would be ceding it to McCain," Buchanan said.
But the issue is not simply about one or two judges, according to Buchanan. It's about the tyranny of the Supreme Court over the last half century.
"This is about the U.S. Supreme Court. The Republicans have to break that filibuster because ... the Supreme Court's been conducting a social revolution in this country for 50 years, and Bush has a long-shot chance of bringing down the curtain on it – and you should not give up that for some idea of non-partisanship in the U.S. Senate," he said.
Buchanan surmised that Bush needs to appoint three Supreme Court justices to override the liberal bias of the court, and "take it out of being a judicial dictatorship and judicial tyranny and restore it to constitutionalism."
Imus then asked what McCain and the others might be motivated by in making this deal.
"McCain gets big media that says 'John McCain is the man of the hour,' then he gets the Democrats coming around saying 'McCain saved things, he's a moderate, he's a man of the middle,'" Buchanan answered, "but he's done it at the expense of Frist and the Republican Party."
As for me, I want Allen to be the nominee. If it ends up being some RINO, I would prefer a real Democrat.
I think Buchanan makes a very good point here. My prediction is that the ultimate end-game for this "filibuster deal" is that George Allen is going to emerge as the front-runner for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination.
Buchanan has nailed McStain perfectly here. Leave it to McStain to grab defeat from the jaws of victory.
The U.S. Senate is a vast wasteland.
>>This would present a problem for McCain and his ambitions
There's a lot more to chew on, here, but if McCain has ambitions, he is truly a madman. Compromisers of that rank (generally known as "traitors") have no constituency, and therefore they cannot reasonably have ambitions. Who would put a character like McCain on their shoulders? Nobody. Not Dems, not Republicans, nobody.
"My prediction is that the ultimate end-game for this "filibuster deal" is that George Allen is going to emerge as the front-runner for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination."
Agreed. Bill Frist is moving out of the picture. The RINO crowd will be split down the middle between McCain and Giuliani. Conservatives can win if they unite behind a principled conservative candidate.
George Allen is now the front-runner on tradesports.com
Yes, I'm surprised.
Frist et al would never do it. And if they hinted that they might they would soon be getting calls from the WH persuading them to back off.
http://cnsnews.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/357
I agree. Frist really doesn't inspire me at all. No guts. Too much the Marquis of Queensberry for me. What was needed on our side was a "Senator John BOLTON!"...fer pete's sake!
Char :)
Well, Zell is gone. Can you name another real democrat? No, Liberman is not a real democrat.
"Buchanan said that Bill Frist had the votes to override the filibuster..."
If he "had" them, they weren't very secure. He needs three of the seven, to reach 51 votes and change Senate rules.
If the dems default (use filibuster) Frist will be in a STRONGER position to get his rule change.
The real goal is getting judges approved.
After last night's RINO-led betrayal, the big question I'm facing is whether to stay in the GOP or close my checkbook and re-register as an Independent.
Like many people here, I feel the Party told me last night that I'm no longer welcome because my conservative convictions are too heartfelt and that my activism is too polarizing, even though the true conservatism has driven significant electoral successes over the past decade.
Suddenly, I'm not so sure that a civil war in the GOP would be the worst outcome of last night's debacle. Then again, I always felt that Atwater's Big Tent strategy was unwise because it would eventually lead to a crippling schism between what we've come to know as RINOs and real conservatives.
Frist does NOT have enough experience along with a lack of back bone. He is a disaster. Hopefully, he is a better doctor than politican.
McCain is a loser.
Frist hasn't ceded any power to McCain. McCain is the enemy. His mind was programed by the North Vietnamese. He is the Manchurian Canidate.
(There went twenty years of fighting the Democrats straight down the toilet.)
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Buchanan told Imus that with a change in the rules, President Bush's judicial nominees would have sailed through the Senate, that any Supreme Court nominees would sail through the Senate, and that "the great battle for the supreme Court was about to be won today" – except for the efforts of the "McCain Seven," who, Buchanan believes, have sold out the positions of the president, Sen. Frist and the entire base of the Republican Party.
Absolutely. You're talking about a guy here who almost singlehandedly sunk a US aircraft carrier. That takes some very special Darwinian effort.
What was needed on our side was a "Senator John BOLTON!
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Well, I have contended all along I am in favor of developing about 50 clones of ZELL MILLER and using them to replace the WIMPS that are our fine country-club, spineless losers we call Repub senators...very embarrassing. And at the same time, we are being sold down the river. I ask you...WHY SHOULD WE EVER VOTE FOR A REPUBLICAN SENATOR AGAIN? -- when we FINALLY GIVE THESE FOOLS THE MAJORITY, AFTER SO MANY YEARS, then they play footsie, Mr. Niceguy and the Dems play them like a fiddle.
(barf bucket please!!)
Either that, or they beat him over the head once too often. If that's the case it's tragic, but you can't have a madman influencing public policy.
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