Name me ANYTHING that would move ANY ONE of those senators. You can't, because the ONLY thing that might make them move on this issue is giving them an even greater issue, like repealing the tax cut.
Losing the Senate. What would Leahy profit from that? Or Daschle.
President Bush has been quite shrewd, but has missed a number of opportunities. He's human.
I am simply pointing out that President Bush chooses his battles wisely, and this is one that cannot be won. He has elected to go with taking back the Senate as the preferred course of action.
There are such things as won-win propositions, where even a temporary defeat can be turned to advantage.
Making the case that gridlocking judicial nominations sabotages the war effort also makes the case for a GOP Senate.
And if you saw his speech which just concluded in Davenport, you would be convinced of his desire to do just that.
I'm not unconvinced of the President's desire, I'm unconvinced that his strategies are unquestionable in all cases.
Well, what I have noticed is that strategies that seem poorly chosen have turned out to be the correct ones, after all. I myself understand that there is no way to get Leahy to move on this, nor the other Rats on the committee.
However, I remain puzzled by why we have had no recess appointments. The only thing I can conclude is that a recess appointment stops the use of this as an issue for the elections.
There is a reason why I am here and Karl Rove earns a large salary, I think. Ha!
But, my original point stands, which is that Steyn is uninformed in saying that the President has not been talking about this and other issues, and also that he wasn't campaigning much at certain times during the election.
Also, there is one other thing that Steyn and a lot of people fail to realize: President Bush actually believes in his idea of a new tone in Washington, and he is going to operate in the way he thinks things should be done, whether we are impatient with it or not.