The Looming Battle

Harry Reid and his leftwing cohorts are girding themselves up for single combat against all of president Bush’s major judge nominations. They plan non-stop filibusters against them all. In an effort to see if the GOP is up to the fight, Hugh Hewitt has posed the following question: Does the Senate GOP Go McClellan or Grant if Harry Reid "Goes Gingrich?"

Some might have preferred a different analogy. Something like does the senate GOP go Neville Chamberlain or Winston Churchill? Given the general lack of knowledge about US history, I’m not too sure that many people know who McClellan and Grant are, but more importantly, just as with the rise of Hitler and the appeasement proposed by Chamberlain, the fate of the whole world could very well rest on the actions of our senate re the confirmation of these important federal judges. Getting these judges confirmed is perhaps the most important thing president Bush could ever do during his remaining four years.

Arlen Specter and his ilk, in a totally misguided effort to appease the hard-core Democratic senators, will make it much more likely that strict-constructionist judges will never get confirmed. What does that mean to all of us? The leftist collection of judges who currently populate the federal bench are much more likely to be soft on terrorists. They are much more likely to make it difficult for our intelligence agencies and law enforcement departments to do their jobs. They are much more likely to allow Islamic terrorists to range freely among us, plotting their next devastating, economy-crippling, morale sapping attack. Such an attack would make us much less able to fend off the Islamic terrorists and their proclaimed ambition of world dominance. And these leftists judges know it, --and don’t care.

The most troubling aspect of Specter’s actions and the milquetoast Republican senators who agree with him is that all their efforts to curry favor with the Democrats, and with the leftist press will fail. The leftists are hard-core ideologues. They will never, never, ever compromise their anti-American pro-terrorists stance on all these issues. They may invite Specter to their cocktail parties, and they may have him on their news programs, but he will never be truly accepted by them. He is merely a “useful idiot” for them. Why he can’t see this, when everybody else can clearly see it, is hard to understand.

It’s clearly time for Senator Frist to engage. He must present a resolution that all federal judges who have been voted out of committee must be voted on by the whole senate immediately. They must be presented for confirmation as a group if necessary. Let the filibuster go on for a day or so, then pass a new rule that cloture of a filibuster can be achieved with a simple majority. The American people want this done. The senators must get the courage to make it so or face their wrath in the next election. The sooner they realize this, the better.

Harry Reid Sets the Obstructionist Tone

Harry Reid, true to form, has set the stage for yet another protracted Democrat led filibuster over the appointment of federal judges. President Bush has re-nominated each of the candidates who were prevented by the Democrats from getting an “up or down” vote by the senate last term. Shamelessly, Reid says they have been “rejected” by the senate. Of course, he knows they have not been rejected by the senate, but instead, never have been considered for approval by the full senate due to Democrat led political chicanery. He also knows that if they are given the chance, each will be confirmed by a majority of the senate.

Senator Reid appears to be unaware that one of the reasons Tom Daschle is no longer a senator is because he led the obstruction of President Bush’s nominations, -and the people of South Dakota held it against him. The people of Nevada will do the same, and Senator Reid will hopefully become former Senator Reid.

One thing needs to happen right away. The senate needs to pass a rule that cloture of a filibuster can be achieved by a simple majority vote of the senate. There really is no reason to allow 40 misguided senators to hold up the people’s business. Senator Frist needs to get it done – now.

Kennedy Shows the Democrat's True Colors

On Tim Russert today we saw a very revealing picture of what leftists always propose as a solution to every issue and as remedy to every national problem --tax increases! When pressed by Russert for the Democrat's solution to the Social Security problem Kennedy demanded Bush raise taxes. He specifically said:

MR. RUSSERT: So you would roll back the president's tax cuts.

SEN. KENNEDY: That's a possible--for one-third, he wants to make it permanent. You can roll back just one-third of it and solve the Social Security problem. ...

No other way to paint what he said. He proposed raising taxes. Russert even acknowledged it. And anyone who thinks he only wants back one third of the Bush tax cuts doesn’t know Senator Kennedy very well. He wants continuous, huge tax increases to fund the laundry list of socialist programs he has promised his left-wing core constituency ranging from socialized medicine to government guaranteed so-called “living” wages. It's the only solution to every problem in the democrat play book. It's the first thing they think of. It's what they suggest every time. They go right to it, --raising taxes almost is a Pavlovian response. You sound a whistle, they scream "raise taxes." Of course, raising taxes never works. Throwing more money at a social problem never works as a solution. They threw billions at poverty during LBJ's War on Poverty. The result: more poverty. Throwing more money at problems by raising taxes only accomplishes one thing: It provides more money for Democrats to spend on their pet programs. They buy votes with this tax revenue. That's why they always oppose tax cuts and always support tax increases. Higher taxes is their life blood. It’s how they survive.

Fortunately, the American people are no longer buying it. The "raising taxes" solution has largely fallen out of favor with the majority of Americans. The past two presidential election cycles demonstrates that fact. Bush campaigned on cutting taxes twice, and was elected --twice. He therefore has a clear mandate to cut taxes, not raise them. Kennedy can urge higher taxes all he wants. He’s unlikely to get them.

Raising taxes won's solve the Social Security problem any more than it solved the war on poverty problem, or the horrible inner city schools problem. The more taxes and spending are increased, the worse these problems get. Throwing more taxpayer money something accomplishes only one thing: --It wastes a lot of taxpayer money. The only solution that will work to "fix" Social Security is to abolish it. Bush has proposed doing exactly that --incrementally. Hopefully, within this century, Social Security will consist of what it should –each individual taking care of himself and his own family, and donating funds through charity to take care of those who truly can’t take care of themselves. Having government dipping its fingers into the administration of charity is always a bad idea. Expecting people to care for themselves and their families is always a good idea. Bravo Mr. Bush!