Let’s face it folks. We were conned.
When Bush nominated John Roberts for Rehnquist’s seat on the Court, the establishment Dems told the rank and file not to put up a stink. They told us we should ‘keep our powder dry’ for the real ideologue who would replace O’Connor. By voting FOR a conservative, they reasoned, Dem Senators would have more credibility to vote AGAINST an Arch-conservative.
“Fair enough,” said the rank-and-file. “We’re not quite sure we understand the logic of your strategery, but as long you commit that you will truly stand and fight when Bush nominates the really rabid radical, we’ll play along.”
We played along. Roberts was confirmed. And beltway Dems trumpeted their total capitulation as a winning tactical retreat. “Just wait’ll the next one,” they told us. “Our powder remains dry. We’ll be ready.”
But they weren’t ready. Nor did they even try to be ready. Nor it seems did they even want to be ready. Even though Alito was, as Bill Frist himself admitted, liberals’ ‘worst nightmare’, and despite a full court press by the left-wing of the blogosphere that shut down free fax services and sent Senate staffers scurrying under their desks, at the end of this sad day Dems were able to muster only 24 out of 44 no votes against cloture.
24 out of 44 – and many of them dragged kicking and screaming to boot.
Where was the fight we were so earnestly promised in exchange for Roberts? Where was that powder we had so reluctantly saved for this very moment?
The Dems’ dismal performance at the confirmation hearings was a real tip-off that were being taken for the proverbial ride. While some, like Kennedy and Feingold, fought the good fight, the rest acted like THEY, not Alito, were on the hot seat.
Take Joe Biden (please). You know something’s wrong when a guy who has never met a teleprompter he didn’t like says that the hearings would be better off if they were NOT televised. Tell you what Joe. I’d gladly trade a year’s worth of your worthless appearances on the Sunday network gab-a-thons if someone like Elliot Spitzer could grill strip-search Sammy for just five minutes live on C-Span. THEN we’d see whether what precious little time Dems were allotted might have been used to their advantage.
DiFi was little better. Haltingly reading from prepared questions, she simply blew off Alito’s non-responses to even the most basic questions (like whether the President was obligated to follow statutory law). Her staff (who admittedly did a nice job with the questions) gave her opening after opening to slam Sam to the canvas. Yet not only did Feinstein fail to land the knockout, she never even tried to swing. She simply blustered around for a bit and then moved on to her next question. It was as if she didn’t WANT to embarrass Alito – as if by embarrassing Alito she would be embarrassing herself.
And that, my friends, is the problem in a nutshell. For the most part, our Democratic Senators are simply too afraid of rocking their safe little boats to make any waves. Save for a few ambitious, Presidential wannabees, most have reached the pinnacle of their political careers. So, as long as they can keep their seats and get thrown a few slops from the Republican trough, they have absolutely NO incentive to cut the establishment umbilical cord. So instead, these fetal Dems shuck and jive the base with false promises and high-falutin’ rhetoric about ‘powder’.
Newsflash: There IS no Powder. There never WAS any Powder. And despite all of their blarney about tactical retreats, the only thing most of the current crop of Senate Dems know about Powder is how to TAKE one when a tough vote comes along.
