McCain’s Blunder

National Review Online ^ | 10/06/05 | Mark R. Levin

[DTogo]

McCain will go nowhere in 2008. His campaign is an MSM fabrication that only he thinks is an actual possibility.

[hosepipe]

[ I would have nominated Bork or Coulter. ]

Coulter nominated for the Supreme Court.?. What a concept..

LoL.. NOW that would be a fight worth seeing..
Oh the hyperbole from both sides..
Oh the lovely beautiful sound bites..
Oh the repartee with the Senate democrats. Ann would murderize them..

(Dreamin) *sigh*..
That might me even make me entertain Bush as a conservative even though I know hes isn't..
It would take balls as big as Janet Renos to pull that off..

[Cboldt]

Well, well well, a thoughtful piece that does not blame Frist for laying the predicate which led to this debacle. Frist never had the votes as Levin acknowledges.

Frist has the votes for some Circuit Court nominations. Graham and DeWine are on record, naming names of judges that Reid would filibuster, that they would vote for the nuclear option.

[Pessimist]

" What would it serve to have the type of nominee he had hoped for demeaned and debased by the Democrats followed by a display of Republicans who wouldn't trigger the "nuclear option?"

Party politics aside, what it would have done is brought the entire left / right debate into sharp public focus. There come times when one must stand on principal. If not now, when?

And in political terms, there are a number of dem senators in red states up for re-election next cycle who may have been vulnerable had the pres dedicated sufficient political capital to the issue.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Giuliani never intended to run with McCain, but with a conservative (likely a social conservative.) I am convinced that he will be on the ticket as either the P or VP, with someone like a Pence or Pawlenty or Allen(but he's really fading, though not as fast as Santorum, and IMHO not Presidential material.) And frankly, a Giuliani+conservative ticket is the only one likely to win, given all the dynamics. It would hold all the southern states and win at least NY, and probably NJ, to offset the likely loss of OH and possibly NV or CO (CA diaspora infections.)

[cogitator]

In my opinion, it would have been better for the process, and for the Court, to have nominated a clearly conservative judge and then watch the "Gang of 14" struggle to justify that the "extraordinary circumstances" for a filibuster were invokable due to the nominee.

The burden of proof would have been on them to indicate why the nominee did not deserve to be seated on the Court. Now the burden of proof is on the Administration to indicate why the nominee deserves to be seated on the Court -- other than the basic lines we've been fed so far.

[Hank Rearden]

I can't understand, if Levin believes this of McCain and the gang, what he wanted Bush to do.

If Bush Jr. doesn't have the guts to take on the likes of Schmucky Schumer, Kennedy and Feinswine now, then when, exactly?

Are buttwipes like them going to remain unchallenged and unrefuted until the day they die in their chairs?

Or is Bush Jr. waiting for something important to challenge them?

[Mister Baredog]

Now we have a nominee who is a cipher, who moves the national debate not one centimeter toward a proper understanding of judicial review.

Gee I thought the Roberts hearings were very enlightening in that regard.

That's not what you want, you want the bloody fight, admit it. LOL.

Now we have a nominee who is a cipher

Could we at least hear from her before we judge her, that would seem fair to me?

[nathanbedford]

You are speaking of the state of play after the gang of seven acted as a fifth column and disarmed the nuclear option. It was then that the whole of the conservative base went ballistic. Lindsey Graham stated backpedaling faster than Ginger Rodgers, declaring which filibuster he would determine for his colleagues were legitimate and which were not and therefore which judges he would vote for.

[Howlin]

They concluded she was qualified for the position she got, nothing further.

[Howlin]

No!!

Let's judge her quick, fast, and brutally.

[Cboldt]

You are speaking of the state of play after the gang of seven acted as a fifth column and disarmed the nuclear option.

Yes. The current state of the matter. The nuclear option is again armed, depending on what constitutes "exceptional circumstances."

In this chess game, the GOP should bring out Boyle and Myers (they are presently on the Senate's executoive calendar) for a vote. Now is a great time to confirm them. Then hustle to get Haynes, Kavanaugh and Saad out of committee, and do the same.

Maybe all of them would be voted on, up or down, without the abuse of cloture; or if the DEMs dared to filibuster, the nuclear option would be "easier" in the context of a Circuit Court nomination than a SCOTUS nomination.

The Senate won't do it. Chicken, if you ask me.

[Dat Mon]

The right nominee chosen by Bush plus the bully pulpit actively used by Bush plus a strong leadership role by Frist....

The gang of 14 would have folded like a fancy silk suit.

JMHO...I guess its something we'll never know for sure.

[BlueNgold]

McCain's BlunderSSSSS
It's plural, varied, and would take most of FRs available bandwidth, but if you are going to discuss things, you should try to do so correctly.

[Mister Baredog]

Let's judge her quick, fast, and brutally

Excuse me if I think you've already done that.

[Howlin]

Ah, I was joking.

I haven't judged her at all; I'm saying let's wait and see. And I've said that from the first.

[johnny7]

Sometimes it is better not to put off "civil" war.

Essentially, that's what Bush is doing. It's NECESSARY to fight now... it was BEST to fight the Friday before that spineless gang-of-7 made their deal with the devil.

[gakrak]

Amen and Amen. I have absolutely no use for McCain. There is no way I can vote for him, but if Hilly is the opposition I am going to be in a real pickle. I really don't like McCain but I really, really despise Hilly. Amen.

[AzSteven]

Obviously Clay stopped the Civil War from starting in 1830-40 instead of 1861, but in 1840 the casualty rate would have been much lower and the Constitution preserved. (Railroads.) Sometimes it is better not to put off "civil" war.

Sort of off-topic I know, but I am not sure that a Civil War in 1840 would have worked out any better for the South; in fact I think it would have been a more dramatic defeat. The rail network in the North was much smaller in 1840, but there was a network; the South reall didn't get into the rail and industrialization business until the mid 1840s. So you would have had a weaker but still numerically and industrially stronger North facing a South with comparitvely less population and industry than they had in 1860 compared to the North.

Of course, none of that stopped my local wargaming group from using that very scenario as the background for six miniature wargame tournament sessions back about 10 years ago. Wars are very entertaining in 25mm scale; much less pain and bloodshed all around.

[cogitator]

In my opinion, it would have been better for the process, and for the Court, to have nominated a clearly conservative judge and then watch the "Gang of 14" struggle to justify that the "extraordinary circumstances" for a filibuster were invokable due to the nominee.

The burden of proof would have been on them to indicate why the nominee did not deserve to be seated on the Court. Now the burden of proof is on the Administration to indicate why the nominee deserves to be seated on the Court -- other than the basic lines we've been fed so far.