Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Rice is confirmed

Condi Rice has been confirmed by the Senate. There were 13 "no" votes against her. Kennedy, Kerry, Harkin, Dayton, Levin, et al, voted "no." I think it’s perfectly OK to vote against her, but I am surprised at the vehemence of the opposition. Calling her a liar, etc., seems to be to be highly imprudent and I can’t figure out what such Democrats are thinking. I find it hard to believe that this will be to their advantage in future elections. If this is a foreshadowing of what will happen when Bush nominates someone to the Supremes, well, we have something to look forward to!

Also note that the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Gonzales for Attorney General. The vote was along party lines, 10-8. This may indicate that the Democrats are more united than I thought about how they are going to oppose the Bush administration. One miscalculation after another!

Discussions - 9 Comments

The only thing we have to look forward to is more of the same - a small, loud, and ineffective minority of Senators making a lot of noise about candidates who will easily pass the floor vote.

Only ineffective if the Republicans/conservatives in the Senate don’t change their act; they must be willing to force a "procedural" filibuster to become an actually filibuster, letting all watching C-Span see what kind of jackasses are holding up the nominee process.

I will never understand why they haven’t called out Carl Levin on his disgusting nepotism. What he and his pals are doing to the Sixth Circuit is a crime.

The Republicans in the Senate are less concerned about confirming the President’s judicial appointments (and resisting the Democrats’ assault on the right of the President to appoint the judges) than they are about their own comfort and convenience. There will not be any real filibuster. Or any other change necessary to ensure that judicial nominees get a vote. And conservatives have once again been snookered by Specter, who has brought in as committee counsel one of the NAACP players in the successful and scurrilous plan to keep Judge Gibbons off of the Sixth Circuit until the University of Michigan were decided. At least this time conservatives -- outside of Washington, that is -- objected vociferously while the Washington insiders gave away the store.


"Eeyore" is right. And I think all this conservative commentary about how the Dems are supposedly self-destructing misses the point. For all their supposed self-destructiveness, they still manage to have a huge impact. And let’s not forget how close they came to beating Bush.

Ten times more important is how the REPUBLICANS are doing. And so far, I don’t see the kind of fire, the kind of discipline, and kind of aggressiveness, that we will need if we’re to accomplish ANYTHING. I see a lot of confusion and weakness. Let’s worry about that, not the party of the Left, which has been exactly that for a generation now.

If I were a Republican I wouldn’t be worrying too much. The Democratic Party (at most state levels and the national level) has been unorganized and dysfunctional for a looong time now. It’d take a miracle (and a decent DNC Chair) for the Dems to get back on track . . .


Winning elections and power are not the same thing.

I don’t know of any other name to call a "LIAR" than a "LIAR" do you?

Astara_Urania

Well, Kay, obviously the vast majority of the Democratic Senators did not find that to be the case. Just a couple of extremists, the uber-nepotist Carl Levin, and a couple of future presidental candidates looking to beef up their liberal cred.

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