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I am appalled and disgusted by the Democratic treatment of Miguel Estrada -- I hope and expect that they will come to regret this.
But setting aside for a moment my partisan lens, it seems to me a very instructive event -- why have Democrats chosen to pick this fight at this time? In truth, I think they have no choice but to fight, for two reasons: race and abortion. On race, the Democrats simply cannot abide yet another intelligent, successful, sympathetic and yes, conservative jurist (see Clarence Thomas). The very existence of such judges fundamentally undermines so many liberal Democratic orthodoxies that they cannot allow such figures to emerge from the process unscathed. In this respect, it is helpful to consider the disparity between the statements and rhetoric of the liberal Hispanic groups opposed to Estrada (he's not "genuinely Hispanic," does not reflect the experience of most Hispanic immigrants, etc.) and the arguments being used by the Democratic Senators against him. They dare not impugn Estrada's "Hispanic-ness," of course, but there can be no doubt that politically, the Democratic Party's racial apparatus is driving the Senators to the unprecedented lengths they have already gone.
But perhaps even more than race, I believe that abortion is -- as always -- motivating the Democrats to fight so bitterly over this judicial nomination. There is no greater, stronger orthodoxy within the Democratic coalition than unequivocal support for abortion on demand. And the Democrats know full well that their only hope of preserving abortion on demand is to keep the issue tied up in the courts and away from the democratic process. The mere suspicion that Mr. Estrada objects to the jurisprudential underpinnings of the "right to abortion" is enough to make Democratic Party activists demand that their Senators fight this fight. If Bush has his way -- on this nomination and on presumed future Supreme Court appointments -- they know full well that the whole edifice begun with Roe could well crumble. And to be thus exposed to the democratic processes that would then govern is, apparently, a prospect too horrible to allow.
Mr. Estrada obviously drives right at both of these two issues, either one of which alone might have caused this fight. The fact that he's one of the first nominees out of the chute under GOP control of the Senate is also a complicating factor, of course.
That, in any case, is my take -- thanks for your continued coverage, and here's one strong vote in favor of Judge Estrada.
They are fighting for their twisted ethical life commitment. Abortion makes a pregnant woman God, the arbiter of life and death. They are secular acolytes, selfishly wagering on an unaccoutable power absent a Higher deity and authority. Abortion - the deification of woman as God - is the worldly vestage of their pagan arrogance, and they fight for it desperately because they are fighting for their conception of the destiny of their souls, and the accounting of their earthly acts.
The Feminists are scared sheeyatless that their assumption of Godlike infallability might carry a heavy heavy payback. Same with the Gays/Lesbians. The Communist power thugs. The Hollywood whores. It's psychotic fearfullness that their self-medicating delusions will no longer have universal legal sanction - that a secular-free manifestation of their warped religion will make them come to grips with their destiny. They'll scratch and corrupt and lie and kill to avoid that wakeup call. And, their political sponsors .... TA DA ... ergo the Senate filibuster .... have no choice but to scratch, corrupt, lie and kill for them ... and for themselves because they are God too and they have a lot of money riding on this scam.
The rest of the Democrat voting crew are just immoral scumbags and con men on the take, like Gotti's admirers in Little Italy. We need to take their allowance away, they'll surrender in a simian-like surrender during cheese-meal. Just like smelly Mr. French!