Vince Lombardi once said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” This could be the motto of the Democrats today, as they fight to regain their former position of dominance in American politics. Their fight apparently has no rules. Nothing is out of bounds.
Al Gore lost the 2000 election, but it was not until after he retracted his concession and sent the lawyers into Florida, in an attempt to overturn the election results on unfounded charges of racism, intimidation, and voter confusion. This has been a favorite strategy of elitist Democrats. They seem to think they should not be constrained by election results or conventionally enacted law. When democracy’s results displease, it’s off to the courts, in search of a venue where law can be enacted on the fly from the bench.
No need to wonder about their intransigence on circuit court appointments. In their ongoing search for pliable justices, the Democrats have taken an unprecedented step, that can be said to have circumvented the Constitution. Admittedly, Republicans have had a hand in setting up the situation by their agreement to Senate rules which allow the minority party to filibuster without requiring them to keep talking. The filibuster remains in force until a 60/40 majority votes to end it, and so we now have several ongoing simultaneous filibusters. And over what, you may ask? Judicial nominees is the answer. The Constitutional requirement for a simple majority to confirm a presidential nomination is no longer the law. The Democrats now filibuster any judicial nominee that doesn’t meet their high standard for judicial activism, and so the confirmation requirement is now a super majority, not a simple majority.
But that’s not the worst of it. The North Vietnamese of 1971 taught the terrorists of today, that America could be defeated, but not by military attack. America could be defeated by attacking our political will to keep fighting. Our failure to respond to the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tansania, the 1993 World Trade bombing, the attack on the USS Cole reinforced that lesson. Osama bin Laden was convinced that America would once again fail to respond when he took his fight to American soil. But it appears there are some Democrats who would ignore those lessons. You see, there's an election to win. Nothing is more important than that.
And where does the Democratic standard bearer come down on this? He says we must not fail in Iraq. But he also wants to allow journalists the opportunity to publish pictures of soldiers' flag draped coffins. President Bush refuses to allow journalists a convenient point of intrusion upon families of those who have given their last full measure. Kerry must reflexively oppose. The privacy of the families doesn't matter, nor does it matter what effect it might have on the national will to continue the fight. He must oppose, he must win, no matter the cost.
Update: Via Betsy Newmark, Keith Burgess-Jackson agrees:
That, in a nutshell, is the liberal mentality. It explains why liberals are so angry, hateful, and spiteful and why they resort to courts rather than to legislatures to implement their vision of the just society. They have given up hope of engaging their adversaries on rational ground. They know that they can't muster a majority for their causes. To liberals, only the outcome matters, not the process. Without power, their egalitarianism is mere fantasy. But conservatives should be careful not to dismiss it as such, for liberals have demonstrated that they will do whatever it takes to secure and retain power. We saw it in the case of Robert Bork. We saw it in the case of Bill Clinton. We see it in the case of war in Iraq. To the liberal, the end justifies the means. Take it from me, a former liberal. (emphasis mine)
By the way, Lombardi was much closer to a true liberal than anything else.
Posted by: Dave | April 28, 2009 at 09:23 AM
And a true liberal is?
Posted by: Tom Bowler | April 28, 2009 at 08:43 PM