Posted on 10/07/2005 5:41:46 AM PDT by linkinpunk
October 7, 2005
Republican Senate Is Weak, Not Bush
By Thomas Sowell
Conservatives who have for years contributed time, money, and sweat to help elect Republicans have often been justifiably outraged at the way the Republicans have then let them down, wimped out, or even openly betrayed the promises on which they were elected.
Much of that frustration and anger is now being directed at President Bush for his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Why not someone like Judge Janice Rogers Brown or any of a number of other identifiable judges with a proven history of upholding conservative judicial principles under fire?
Looming in the background is the specter of people like Justice Anthony Kennedy, who went on the High Court with a "conservative" label and then succumbed to the Washington liberal culture. But while the past is undeniable, it is also not predestination.
This administration needs to be held responsible for its own shortcomings but not those of previous Republican administrations.
Rush Limbaugh has aptly called this a nomination made from a position of weakness. But there are different kinds of weakness and sometimes the difference matters.
President Bush has taken on too many tough fights -- Social Security being a classic example -- to be regarded as a man who is personally weak. What is weak is the Republican majority in the Senate.
When it comes to taking on a tough fight with the Senate Democrats over judicial nominations, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist doesn't really have a majority to lead. Before the President nominated anybody, before he even took the oath of office for his second term, Senator Arlen Specter was already warning him not to nominate anyone who would rile up the Senate. Later, Senator John Warner issued a similar warning. It sounded like a familiar Republican strategy of pre-emptive surrender.
Before we can judge how the President played his hand, we have to consider what kind of hand he had to play. It was a weak hand -- and the weakness was in the Republican Senators.
Does this mean that Harriet Miers will not be a good Supreme Court justice if she is confirmed? It is hard to imagine her being worse than Sandra Day O'Connor -- or even as bad.
The very fact that Harriet Miers is a member of an evangelical church suggests that she is not dying to be accepted by the beautiful people, and is unlikely to sell out the Constitution of the United States in order to be the toast of Georgetown cocktail parties or praised in the New York Times. Considering some of the turkeys that Republicans have put on the Supreme Court in the past, she could be a big improvement.
We don't know. But President Bush says he has known Harriet Miers long enough that he feels sure.
For the rest of us, she is a stealth nominee. Not since The Invisible Man has there been so much stealth.
That's not ideal by a long shot. But ideal was probably never in the cards, given the weak sisters among the Republicans' Senate "majority."
There is another aspect of this. The Senate Democrats huffed and puffed when Judge John Roberts was nominated but, in the end, he faced them down and was confirmed by a very comfortable margin.
The Democrats cannot afford to huff and puff and then back down, or be beaten down, again. On the other hand, they cannot let a high-profile conservative get confirmed without putting up a dogfight to satisfy their left-wing special interest groups.
Perhaps that is why some Democrats seem to welcome this stealth nominee. Even if she turns out to vote consistently with Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, the Democrats are off the hook with their base because they can always say that they had no idea and that she stonewalled them at the confirmation hearings.
The bottom line with any Supreme Court justice is how they vote on the issues before the High Court. It would be nice to have someone with ringing rhetoric and dazzling intellectual firepower. But the bottom line is how they vote. If the President is right about Harriet Miers, she may be the best choice he could make under the circumstances.
Dr. Sowell is worth reading anytime.
Marked for later bump.
Thomas Sowell once again demonstrates his brilliance and intellect.
Bush helped out every RINO that he could. He shares some of the blame for a weak Senate.
I trust Bush on this. Does anyone here doubt that Bush wants favorable Supreme Court votes on various issues in the future?
I trust that Bush knows what he's doing. He's playing a stealth game against a Dem/Rino majorty Senate and a leftist commie anti-American traitorous scum-bag evil malicious hate-mongering media.
He has my support.
a breath of fresh air in its reasonableness...
I also trust the president. If he believes she'll make a good justice, then so do I. And I've seen no evidence to the contrary.
They certainly are weak, everyone knows that. Bush is joining the crowd.
Bush helped INCUMBENTS! And liberal Republicans helped him back in 2004 to help him win re-election.
Ronald Reagan did the same thing.
Good article, bump.
Perhaps so but in each of those races (with some exceptions) there oftentimes were no credible alternatives. So being a pragmatist, I would expect Bush decided it was better to retrain control of the Senate (with respect to committee chairmenships at least) rather than losing the Senate by supporting anit-RINOs in states like Maine, Rhode Island, etc., etc. The sad thing is that there are so many RINOs which means those who are angry and disappointed need to just keep working hard to force some of those RINOs to grow backbones. Or they can just take their toys and go home, enjoy minority party status and say, "see I told you so". But of course no one will be around to listen but Democrats and RINOs who will feel vindicated.
Well, I guess the President is just not as perfect as you are. But what choice did he have? Would he have been better off with a RAT majority in the senate? I think not.
Bush helped Specter against Toomey, Ganske against Salier, and IIRC he helped Lincoln Chaffee against a conservative challenger.
I expect Republican senators to be leaders, but am disappointed that they only politicians.
The weakness they are showing in standing up and supporting the Iraq War is disappointing. They are more concerned about their own careers than they are about generating support for the war.
When it comes to taking on a tough fight with the Senate Democrats over judicial nominations, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist doesn't really have a majority to lead.Sowell skirts the issue here. The GOP doesn't have the fortitude to contfront and repair the DEM's abuse of cloture to get its way on nominations.
And neither the Senators or the President make an issue of this. Meanwhile, Myers (9th Cir - on the Senate Exec Calendar since March 17), Boyle (also out of committee, June 16), Haynes, Kavanaugh and Saad (in committee since February) are not being acted on either. I think the GOP-lead Senate should properly handle those nominations. Maybe it would put to bed the notion that the President needs more than 51 votes to obtain a confirmation. And -THAT- would change the entire dynamic of the calculus for a SCOTUS nomination.
The DEMs and RINOs have effectively circumscribed what consititutes acceptable jurisprudence in a way that is favorable for advancing the radical social agendas of abortions, homosexualtiy, and suicide-on-demand. Conservatives are reduced to "stealth."
Sowell nails it. With friends like Wimp Frist and Scottish Law Spector, Bush must feel very much alone amongst his "majority."
I value Sowell's opinions... but I don't believe a Dem filibuster could keep Owen or Rogers-Brown from replacing O'Connor.
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