by Patrick Lang
The reaction on the Right to the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers has made it clear how fragile the coalition of factions that ruled the US for the last five years really was.
 Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including PBS’s Newshour, and most recently on MSNBC’s Hardball and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” His CV and blog are linked below the fold. |
- Evangelical Christians who are focused on moral issues.
- Movement Conservatives intent on fiscal restraint, federalism and a restricted role for the federal courts.
- Neoconservatives obsessed with foreign policy and “national greatness.”
The alliance of these groups has proven unstable. This was pathetically clear today on the weekly TV talkathon in the statements made by representatives of these groups. The level of abandonment of Bush by those who have been his faithful “friends” was striking. Statements were made that essentially imdicate that he is believed to be “unreliable” and “untrustworthy.” One should not want to hear that said about a US president, any president. National polls indicate that such sentiment is spreading.
At this point it looks as though only the evengelicals are going to stick with the president on the Miers nomination. She may squeak by for confirmation in the Senate, but the battle will be so bloody that her creibility as a jurist will be forever harmed.
Why will the evengelicals persist in backing Bush on her nomination? It seems clear that they have been given indications in the “back channel” that she will certainly vote on the court in ways that will please them and President Bush.
Does this mean that she will vote to end the federal protection of abortion rights? It seems likely given her life story and associations. Some people think that Bush does not really want to reverse “Roe v. Wade” because of the damage that this would probably cause the party among women voters. Given his personality it seems unlikely that President Bush would let the welfare of the party be a governing concern once he has left office.
Senator Specter will be intent on learning if it is that it is true that Harriet Miers is as committed to the “pro-life” cause as people tell me she is.
In any event, the conservative coalition is badly split. Considering the multitude of crises faced by the Republican Party, it will be very hard to put that coalition together again.
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“Drinking the Kool-Aid,” Middle East Policy Council Journal, Vol. XI, Summer 2004, No. 2
I watched “This Week” today, and was shocked by the fact that George Will was openly angry and seemed to feel personally betrayed by the Miers nomination. Spector also surprised me, especially after he had to grovel to keep his chairmanship.
What I can’t figure out is, did the hardcore right really expect that one of “theirs” would have been confirmed? The President is tanking in the polls, 2/3 of people think the country is headed in the wrong direction, indictments everywhere, etc. Did they really think the Administration had the muscle to push through an ideologue? I’m baffled by that.
Watch “West Wing” tonight — it’s on now for the West Coast.
What happened? I’m in Central, and I have to confess that I stopped watching it a couple of years ago — after that stupid daughter-napping season finale.
He put up an employee because that’s the greatest distance from which he can make a judgement — and/or he needs insurance for his team on the Court.
I don’t think his popularity made (some kind/degree of) idealogue difficult–I think it made appointing a lifeboat essential. ??
And yet they all call themselves Conservatives. But most of our ancestors came here to avoid the feudal theocratic empires of old Europe, not to reproduce them.
The Evangelicals are not only unConservative, they are in any historical context, unAmerican. Because how in heaven’s name is it in any way Conservative to attempt to use the authority of the federal government, or the state government for that matter, to impose one’s supernatural beliefs and superstitions on the entire population at the point of a government gun?
THis started out as a values debate in which Democrats stood down and it became accepted to say that one could use the law to enshrine society’s moral values, code for religious precepts. This is the legacy of our failure to fight in general, and in particular for our failure to fight for principal. Nations aren’t about values. People and families are about values, which are temporary and evanescent creatures. Nations are about principles, which are eternal and often abstract. During the Civil Rights movement, the rector of St.Paul’s, IIRC, said that the greatest sacrifice any of the boys would have to make would be to sacrifice his values in the name of his principles. Didn’t fully appreciate it at the time I read it but it struck me as important and it stayed in my head. And it has become increasingly clear over time. It is time to make a stand against the melding of church and state.
I hope you are right and this little nonsense coalition grinds to halt, with true libertarian Republicans joining libertarian Democrats, Neocons dissolving and Evangelicals beginning to realize that their ideas do not enjoy popular support and their evangelical ideology is the ideology which dare not speak it’s name. Because that is the only way they can get on the court.
Tomorrow’s top story in the WaPo:
Republicans Struggling To Woo Candidates
Decline in congressional prospects for 2006 is stirring anxiety among party leaders, operatives.
– Charles Babington and Chris Cillizza
She goes up for life. I can’t see how there could be any such thing as “discrediting” of a sitting Supreme Court Justice.
Indeed, nothing thus far has been said about Miers which even comes close to that rock bottom of SCOTUS justices, Clarence Thomas. And he is being cited as a standard for future nominees along with Scalia.
If the current SCOTUS was deeply concerned about it’s credibility they would not have interfered in the ’00 election.
I’ll believe this coalition is in trouble once its dead and gone.
The optimistic have been predicting the end of the conservative coalition for literally a quarter century. Throughout the Reagan years, we heard how social and economic conservatives really didn’t get along. And perhaps they didn’t. But no matter, the coalition continued.
Do not underestimate how much the right is driven by fear and loathing of the Democrats and their (largely fantastic) image of what Dems stand for. If you doubt this, cruise over to Rox Populi and check out the recent threads about what “moderates” and “independents” would need the Democrats to do in order to get their votes. The bottom line is the right still hates the left far more than they hate each other. I’m afraid they’ll get over Miers (and even Bush) pretty easily, no matter how this fiasco turns out.
# Movement Conservatives intent on fiscal restraint, federalism and a restricted role for the federal courts.
# Neoconservatives obsessed with foreign policy and “national greatness.”
And the 64 thousand dollar question is which of these three groups honestly feels like it would get a better deal under the Democrats?
The “evangelical Christians”? Nah, we’re the party of evil, remember? They might vote for us for an election to teach their party a lesson (the same lesson I wish libs would teach the Dems), but if they want to play in politics at all, there is only one home for their kind of unreasoning hatred disguised as “Christianity”. If individual members want to opt out and concentrate on other aspects of politics they’d be welcomed, but the leadership will never get along with the libs/progressives.
The neocons? We vilify them, and utterly reject their foreign policy. While they may be on the outs with the Repubs, they don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell with the Dems, and they know it.
Movement Conservatives? They might be kindred souls with us on fiscal restraint, and compared to the Bush administration we have to look pretty good on states rights in their eyes, too, right now. But we’re still celebrating Roe v Wade as the height of judicial judgment, still pushing for EPA and OSHA and all those nice tentacled bureaucracies they loathe. I doubt they trust our ambitions any more than they liked the Bush execution of their policies.
I agree there is discord. But it seems almost inevitable. It could have been avoided if Bush continued to skate by despite all his failings. Their selective memory was working great for them, letting them ignore all the broken promises as long as they could hold out hope he’d fulfill the next one.
But then Katrina, gas prices, and Miers ruined their good denial. Now the three factions are jockeying for control of the party. Each is pushing for greater control the smart way — by enraging its base and using them to put pressure on the whole to compromise.
I only wish we progressives had our game together like that, and could exert our power instead of whimpering at the latest inane dictate of the DLC.
So they fight each other, trying to get as much control as possible over the rest of the agenda now, and the candidates in 2006/2008, all while trying to keep enough of a coalition to win.
We’ll know they’re cracking for sure when they throw their first subgroup overboard, like some “Dem” groups insist we should do. That is a sign of weakness. Far more than mere infighting.
As revealed by Katrina, the ideology of Conservatism is bankrupt as well. The ideology of cuts in social services and government spending has been shown to be wrong — dead wrong. That resulted in no planning for the future to shore up the levees, no way to save the people who stayed behind, ugly closet and not-so-closet racism, and no way to house the hundreds of thousands of people who are now homeless.
Tjhe factionalfioghting and disintegration of the bush alliance was inevitable.
Each of these groups, these factions, is obsessed by achieving the ultimate control ofgovernment for themselves. but there’s only room at the top for one ruler, one dictator. So of course they’ll windupeventually attacking each other as they all strive for the throne.
The factional fighting…, not “Tjhe factionalfioghting…”
(This is what happens when I’m in a hurry).