Posted on 11/01/2005 5:15:36 AM PST by RWR8189
There's a paradox in George W. Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court. The coming fight might not be good for Alito, but it's going to be great for Bush.
To get anywhere in politics, you need a base. Of course, you also need a majority, but first you need strong supporters - only then can you build toward 50 percent plus one. The base was what Bush was in danger of losing, thanks to government overspending and the disastrously failed nomination of Harriet Miers. By appointing Alito, Bush has taken a big step toward reclaiming his base. With his momentum regained, he can worry about getting his choice confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
An analogy can be made to Bush's favorite president, Ronald Reagan. In November 1986 the Iran-Contra scandal broke. Reagan's approval rating plunged 20 points, but just as seriously, the confidence of his core supporters was shaken. How could The Gipper have been dealing with the ayatollahs in Tehran? Had the 40th president lost his ideological bearings - or his intellectual marbles?
After months of drift, in March 1987 Reagan vetoed a big-spending highway bill. The veto was overridden, but Reagan had reconnected with his limited-government base. (As a footnote, the highway bill Reagan vetoed was objectionable to him and his supportersbecause of its 121 pork-barrel "earmarks"; the highway bill that George W. Bush signed in 2005 had 6,371.)
A few months later, Reagan picked another Good Right Fight. He nominated Robert Bork for the Supreme Court. After a clamorous senatorial debate, Bork was voted down.
But along the way, a funny thing happened. Reagan's approval rating crept back up. He proved that by presiding over eight years of peace and prosperity - as he tried to steer
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
This article emphasizes the things that matter least.
The article emphasizes the issues that WILL be fought about in the upcoming media wars.
The problem is, and everyone agrees, Reagan was completely unprepared for the Bork nomimation. He didn't have his forces aligned, nor did he/his staff anticipate the vitriol of the Left. Thanks to both Roberts and Miers, Bush is under no such illusions about Alito. If anything, you can bet that the staff was FURTHER vetting Alito and Luttig while Miers was doing her "time on the cross."
That veto override lives on in the Big Dig here in Boston, which although "completed," continues to provide work for the corrupt construction unions with leak fixes, road repaving, etc.
True, but Bork refused to be rehearsed or to be sufficiently politic in his answers. He was willfully iconoclastic, I guess you could say.
HEHEH. just the opposite, I guess, of Miers, who was an "empty glass" waiting to be filled with answers.
There is a difference between Bork and Alito. For Alito there are 55 Republican Senators, of which the ones that vote against Alito will have the fight of their lives come reelection.
No one is messing with this one.
Dead on. Republican Senators that take the Rats' side on the Alito vote will be hounded until they leave office, either willingly or after their reelection attempt fails.
"Thanks to both Roberts and Miers, Bush is under no such illusions about Alito."
--->
I think all such illusions regarding judicial nominees by President Bush ended long before that: say, with Estrada...
Red State people are clueless about the strength of the Blue State RINOs. No amount of arguing for a more conservative Republican in those states is realistic.
Chaffee, Snowe, Collins, Voiny, and Specter are not in any danger no matter how they vote. They WILL "mess with this one" if they believe they ought to.
Forget them, and concentrate on attacking the more dangerous and defeatable opposition: the liberal Demodogs in the Blue States like North Dakota, etc. Only that way are we going to finally get a more conservative Senate.
Don't believe me? Take a look at the analyses in these two links and try to refute them with some facts instead of feelings!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1512438/posts?page=1375#1375 (and some further argument thereabouts) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1513219/posts?page=15#15
Since your points on the RINO's have much to say; is it not endemic on all conservs-Pubs who blog, write letters, call, email, ramp up their demands that these 5 or 7 or whatever the count is in the Senate, to accept the Prez' choice?? This will be a war which we must win and to just analyse without doing something, will not be the way to shove this into the faces of the Leftist underminers.
Agreed and agreed.
We ought to all be screaming, "Every nominee that a president makes for a judicial or executive branch position is required by The Constitution to have a straight up or down vote on the Floor of the Senate". I've been arguing that since May. I argue, even, that holding a nominee up in committee, or by black-carding (or whatever that's called) is unConstitutional.
I've argued that Miers should have been given a vote by the Senate rather than calling for the clearly unConstitutional document request to scuttle and delay her nomination and make it untenable.
Up until the Miers nomination, conservatives were on solid ground in calling for a floor vote for all nominees. With that debacle now behind us, they are definitely on shaky ground, and all bets on how those "gang of 14" (actually 12 given that both DeWine and Graham will vote to support the leadership if a nuke vote comes up) will vote now are really off. In addition to them, now it is really in question as to how Specter and Voiny will vote on the Constitutional Option.
Conservatives have really stepped into it with this Miers business. Really - all is going to depend on whether the "gang" decides to allow the Demodogs to call this an "extraordinary circumstance". Quite obviously, I don't believe it remotely fits the bill, but I don't have a vote.
We'll know much more by Friday, I think.
What happened to Judge Bork will never happen again. The Conservative base, using the internet and conservative talk radio etc., simply will not allow such one-sided treatment. Judge Alito will be confirmed in a waltz.
Reagan didn't have the internet or the blogosphere. We do.
These are false comparisons: the Left didn't have these tools either. Reagan just blew it on Bork, and even his loyal lieutenants admit that.
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