Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Only a day after the right wing flipped out over a 1993 speech where Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers appeared to be against legislating morality, she withdrew under a firestorm of criticism from the president's right wing base. As I speculated yesterday, she was on the way out. Unfortunately, it was just when I was starting to like her.

Now comes the bad part. Bush will be forced to nominate a right wing ideologue to satisfy conservatives. The Democrats will filibuster. With the nutty base screaming and yelling, the GOP will use the "nuclear option" taking away the right for the Democrats to filibuster judicial nominees. The divisive right wing will have once again taken American politics into the gutter and spit on national unity. They should be proud!

If the Republicans go nuclear, the Democrats should walk out of the Senate in a staged protest. They have the moral and political high ground having supported John Roberts Supreme Court confirmation and held their powder dry on the Miers nomination. The GOP is in a very weak position. This is the Democrats chance to take back the House and Senate because this will, once again, be a "government shutdown moment". The petty GOP, having scuttled their own president's nomination, will be cast in the 1995 obstructionist role of Newt Gingrich.

One other possibility exists. That is that the stubborn Bush is so mad at the stunning disloyalty of his base that he snubs them and nominates a person that the right hates. With support from Democrats and the few remaining moderate Republicans, this person narrowly gets confirmed. It is an unlikely scenario, but we all know that Bush doesn't like to be shown up, and his base has attacked him for weeks. In his second term, he could do something unpredictable, but I doubt it.

5 Comments:

I said the same thing to one of my friends earlier today when I heard about the Miers withdrawal. Bush is such an infantile vengeful prick that he'll either nominate someone the right hates or suck up to the base again and pick a total fascist. Everything he touches turns to curdled milk--typhoid georgie!
Gary (NJ)
posted by Anonymous, at 10/27/2005 1:40 PM

Happy to see the old lady make a decision on her own. Georgie sure wouldn't have done it! It would be in his best interest also to listen to the Democrats choice for the Supreme Court. The court needs balance, but Georgie doesn't seem to grasp that idea. AND wouldn't it be better if he, the Bushler, asked Sandra to stay unitl after the term?

BTW Adam-----"One political anlyst said that "While it took 30 years for the democrats to get corrupt with scandal, It has only taken 10 for the replicans to get as corrupt"

Ahhhhhhhhhhahahaha, shouldn't there be a ? mark at the end of that statement? It's just that the Republicans can hide it from the public better than the Democrats can. WHY? because the GOP owns the media more than the Demos do...In my humble opinion anyway..:)
posted by Anonymous, at 10/27/2005 2:07 PM

Even if the halfwit picks an even more extremist judge for the Supreme Court, its going to fire back eventually. What it will do is foment civil unrest, not just in our community but in others, slowly but surely. I don't think republicans want to see a repeat of the unrest exhibited during the 60s and early 70s, only this time it would be bigger.

Robert, NYC.
posted by Anonymous, at 10/27/2005 3:25 PM

I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said we should have a revolution every 10 years; we're long overdue!
Gary (NJ)
posted by Anonymous, at 10/27/2005 4:35 PM

I said it once and I'll say it again ... as uneasy as Ms Miers made me ... I tremble at the thought of the candidate that will rally Dubya's Right-Wingnut neocons together.

Looks like the DEMs better be prepared to FILIBUSTER - cause Bush is probably going to appoint someone who makes Scalia look tame. IMHO.

--
Paul, Houston TX
posted by Anonymous, at 10/27/2005 7:50 PM