"We had an opportunity to get the nuclear option BEFORE we committed political capital to this effort. Now, we don't.
In short, we f***ed up, bigtime. We focused on one unwinnable fight so that we could lose the entire war."
Hogwash.
You need "political capital" to convince members of the other party to come over and help you on this thing or that thing. Bush needs to expend political capital, for example, to get Social Security reform.
But the Nuclear Option is something within the power of the Republican Party, alone, acting all by itself, with 55 Senators, or 51 of those 55, to do.
The Republican Party has run as the pro-life party for 30 years. Are we now expected to have to expend "political capital" to get REPUBLICANS to vote the platform they have campaigned on?
Apparently you think so.
I think that's a dodge.
Maybe I'm just all alone, a crazed person who does not want to see an innocent woman die in agony and the fact of that associated political turmoil to be used as an EXCUSE, for that is all it is, on the part of the Republicans to not vote according to their own CAUCUS.
55 Senators are Republicans.
Three are RINOs.
That leaves 52.
It takes 51.
So, explain to me how the brouhaha in Florida makes the Republicans unable to vote in their own caucus for their own platform.
On second thought, don't bother.
Really, it's not worth the effort.
Crazed pro-life idiots like me are not going to listen to it anyway.
We are going to feel betrayed if the nuclear option is not exercised AND Terri is not saved.
We are not going to accept that Republicans have to expend massive political capital on Republicans two years away from an election in order to clear the way for the conservative Judiciary Republicans have been promising they would give us, if we gave them power, for 30 years.
If they don't do it, it is not because WE stood up for Terry Schiavo's life all the while demanding that the Republican Majority continue to fulfill its platform.
It will be because key Republicans simply DO NOT WANT TO DO IT.
It will be a choice.
WE are not "forcing" them to make that choice.
WE did not "blow" anything.
But the Nuclear Option is something within the power of the Republican Party, alone, acting all by itself, with 55 Senators, or 51 of those 55, to do.
One more time: not all of those 55 Senators agreed with the idea. At one point--briefly--we had 51 who thought it to be the one reasonable solution. Then we proceeded to convince a few of them that we were stark raving bonkers.
The Republican Party has run as the pro-life party for 30 years. Are we now expected to have to expend "political capital" to get REPUBLICANS to vote the platform they have campaigned on?
Not all of those Republicans campaigned on that platform.
So, explain to me how the brouhaha in Florida makes the Republicans unable to vote in their own caucus for their own platform.
Because some had conservative notions about the role of the filibuster and cloture in the Senate, and disagreed with the concept of the nuclear option as a result.
We are going to feel betrayed if the nuclear option is not exercised AND Terri is not saved.
Has anyone told you you're acting like a spoiled four-year-old?
Aside from me, that is?