"I am beyond disgusted and do not think Congress will step up to the plate and stand up to the Judiciary. What are our options now?"
It is obvious what our option is.
If the Republicans will not press through the slate and change the composition of the judiciary, they will have welched on a key campaign promise, the whole REASON for the Christians to have supported them en masse for so long in the first place. The Republicans will have gotten every tax cut and drilling in Alaska, but not used their power to get the judicial slate.
Most Christians are not rich. If taxes went back up to Clinton levels, a lot of Republicans would be hurt, but actually, the Christians would be the least hurt of them.
If the Republicans prove faithless, the Christians option is to simply stay home in 2006 and 2008. This will effectively hand the government back over to the Democrats, but guess what? If Republicans don't fulfill their campaign promise on judges when they have the power to do so, they are liars and no better than Democrats. Because it will mean that there is no hope of Roe ever being overturned. If with the power, Republicans won't give the victory to the Christians that they have been fighting for for 20 years, Christians have to do the same thing to Republicans that fiscal conservatives did to George H W Bush when he welched on his "No new taxes pledge."
This will mean handing Congress back to the Democrats by Christians staying home. That will mean higher taxes, which will especially fall on the Republicans who have gotten their agenda almost in its entirety. The Christians will be the least hurt.
And that will make the point to the Republicans that George H W Bush's defeat in 1992 made to them regarding taxes: if you lie, you lose power and your constituency stays home.
All that said, the Republicans AREN'T going to welch. They are going to press the nuclear option button and put in President Bush's strict constructionist judges, and those judges will eventually, once they reach a critical mass, overturn Roe v. Wade.
But if the Republicans don't, Christians need to stop contributing and stay home en masse in 2006, because it will mean that they have been betrayed, and there is no better purpose served by voting for someone who lies to you than there is in voting for someone who is bent on doing bad things. Both things have the same result, and are equally bad.
Fortunately, the Republicans have more principles than that.
They will invoke the nuclear option, soon.
Support them to the hilt when they do.
If they don't, shake the dust off of your sandals and leave them behind.
There is no "middle way", and there should be no pretense that there is.
I'm with you!!
"If Republicans don't fulfill their campaign promise on judges when they have the power to do so, they are liars and no better than Democrats. Because it will mean that there is no hope of Roe ever being overturned. If with the power, Republicans won't give the victory to the Christians that they have been fighting for for 20 years, Christians have to do the same thing to Republicans that fiscal conservatives did to George H W Bush when he welched on his 'No new taxes pledge.'"
I agree with your analysis. If they don't deliver to the Christian base what it wants, then why should we continue to vote for them? Are acts of omission by a Republican controled congress any worse than the acts of commission by the Democrats. I won't vote for Democrats, ever. However, I may not vote at all if Republicans don't deliver.
**This will mean handing Congress back to the Democrats by Christians staying home. That will mean higher taxes, which will especially fall on the Republicans who have gotten their agenda almost in its entirety. The Christians will be the least hurt.**
Now even with the Democratic obstruction that most of Bush's judges is appointed (something like 90% of his nominees).
I would think the Christians would be hurt much worse if instead of not getting 10% of the top judges we want in office we don't get 100% of all judges by making the Republicans the minority party.
Oh, you mean like they did in 92? That was successful, wasn't it? Clinton got in, fired all the federal prosecutors and replaced them with his own, allowed Al Qaeda to gain enough strength to take us down on 9-11, taught our kids what a BJ is. That worked out really well.
If the spineless GOP leadership doesn't get the New England leftist Republicans in line on this issue, this old soldier is done at the voting booth for the foreseeable future.