Mr. Reid-

I’ve got news for you. If you listen to people like former Senator John Breaux, and put other issues like gas prices over a woman’s constitutional right to have a first trimester abortion you are going to regret it.

“The interest groups are going to be out there, and this is their issue, and they are going to fight it until the dead warm over, but gas prices, health care costs and Iraq are the things that motivate most people,” he said. In a Supreme Court fight, “we are not expanding the base, and even if we get 100 percent of the base, we do not win a national election.”

Judge Roberts “is a good family man with beautiful children,” Mr. Breaux said. “You have to be very careful about how you approach digging into the background of somebody who appears to be a good guy.”
NY Times

It’s true that there are interest groups that are laser focused on preserving the privacy and reproductive rights of our citizens. But there are also millions of ordinary Americans that want those rights upheld. There are thousands of political activists whose main interest is elsewhere, but who feel passionately about these issues. There is a whole new progressive blogosphere that supports Roe and is in no mood for the kind of short-term political calculations of Senator Pryor:

Mr. Pryor also said he was keeping an open mind. He said his constituents “want me to do something about gas prices before I do something about Judge Roberts.”

First of all, gas prices are a juicy way to make Americans angry about the current leadership. But our real problem is educating Americans about the real costs of energy dependence, including the relationship between our desire for low prices and our presence in Iraq. Making cynical and ultimately counterproductive political hay over high gas prices implies that we have a plan to lower them. In fact, we want to encourage conservation and alternative fuels. So, drop the goddamn campaign to blame Bush for high energy prices and focus on the lack of support for people that can’t afford to make ends meet when their heating bill doubles.

Frankly, we don’t care that your constituents are more concerned about the price of gasoline than they are about the right to privacy. Judge Roberts is being considered for a lifetime appointment. He could easily serve on the court for 40 or 50 years. When considering such an historical nomination it makes no sense to make short-term political calculations about what your constituents are concerned about this week, or even this year.

Here’s the bottom line. We know that Bush was re-elected and that he is going to pick a judge that we don’t agree with on many important issues. We don’t expect to be excited or enthusiastic about any judge that Bush nominates. But, Roberts must answer the question on whether he will uphold Casey and Roe. If he doesn’t answer, and doesn’t answer affirmatively, we will expect every Democrat on the Judicial Committee and every Democrat in the Senate to vote ‘no’.

If you think you are just dealing with NARAL you are sadly mistaken. You are dealing with your entire base and your most politically effective activists. You are dealing with people who donate money, time, and effort. You will be pissing off the opinion leaders of the party. Any Democrat that votes for a Supreme Court judge that doesn’t swear to uphold Roe and Casey can expect to be vilified and to have massive support thrown behind any primary challenger.

You need to do your best to hold your caucus together and bring a filibuster on Roberts if he will not answer the basic question of whether he will uphold Roe and Casey. If you can’t hold your caucus together we will understand the difficulty of doing so, but we will work tirelessly to punish the appeaseniks.

And Roe is not the only issue. We will be watching the hearings with interest. There may be several other compelling reasons to vote against and possibly filibuster Roberts. You should insist on getting the documents that have been requested.

Bush is in a politically weak position and you have your base’s efforts to thank for that. We helped you fight off the Social Security bill. We exposed Guckert. We blasted away on Shiavo. We have kept the Plame case in the public eye. We have highlighted DeLay’s ethical problems. We pushed the Downing Street Minutes when no one else would. Now you want to ratfuck us by laying down on Roberts because he “is a good family man with beautiful children”?

Don’t fucking try it.

Sincerely,

BooMan