I am not, to the best of my knowledge, Senator Harry Reid. But while I have some policy differences with the good Senator, I greatly admire the intelligence, style and courage he's shown over the last few months. He's playing a damned fine game of rope-a-dope with the GOP dopes, and in most cases showing them to the immoral, power-hungry cretins that they are.
Knowing that Senator Reid -- or at least one of his staff members -- occasionally checks in here, I've decided to write him a little speech, gratis.
(more on the B-side...)
To Senator Reid: forgive the arrogance of me, a lowly blog poster, putting words in your mouth, sir. But please do feel free to borrow all or part of this rhetoric, and know that my reward will be giving you a humble bit of help in fighting the good fight. Bless you.
(To my fellow Kossacks: of course I realize that Senator Reid adopting this idea -- or even reading it -- is quite unlikely. But I would seriously like to propose a speech something like the following. I borrowed much of this writing from a commentI previously posted on an excellent diary by georgia10 a few days back. Enjoy. And as always, feedback, criticism, and post-mod deconstructions of my feeble writing are most welcome. I know that it's more fantasy than anything, but...a guy can dream, eh?)
To set the scene: Senator Harry Reid stands on the Capitol steps, flanked by Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, John Edwards, John Conyers, and...well, your favorite Dem here. Certainly every other prominent member of the Democratic party leadership. And every single congressional Democrat stands behind them.
(He begins:)
To our Republican colleagues in Congress, and Republicans at every level of government:
At this moment your leadership is poised to trigger the "nuclear option" of stripping away the power of Democrats to fillibuster judicial nominees when we object to them. You do so despite the fact that 95% -- yes, 95%! -- of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees have been confirmed to date, a far higher number than you Republicans allowed President Bill Clinton. You have claimed that not approving the remaining 5% of these nominees -- who we Democrats consider to be rightwing judicial activists of the most extreme sort -- is somehow unfair. Your very clear message is that Republicans are entitled to 100% of what they want, all the time.
Your party has complained about judges being too powerful, because they're appointed for life. Yet by trying to bypass the time-honored tradition of the fillibuster, you are actually making it a lot EASIER for judges to get lifetime appointments without running the gamut of full scrutiny and consent. This shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's not about principle for you, but only about grabbing more power. Because the Republicans used to be all for the fillibuster, and were quite happy to use it in the past...And to use every other possible way to make sure President Clinton's nominees weren't voted on, in the very recent past.
So again, it's obviously not principles you're defending; it's not fairness; it's just that you want more power. Even more power. You want a one-party system, with no dissenting voices, at all.
We've tried to negotiate with you in good faith, but in return we've had OUR faith repeatedly insulted and maligned by your leaders. Your response has been that those of us who won't go along with 100% of what Republicans want are somehow evil people, and must be dealt with by giving us no voice in our government, or even -- you've more than hinted -- by violence. This, despite the fact that we represent the votes of over half the people in this great nation. You are determined to push through your "nuclear option" and make this a one-party government.
Well, OK.
We have promised to fight this most recent power grab with every fiber of our beings. And we will. And we'll continue to fight every one of your attempts to make this a government of the Republican party, by the Republican party and --mostly -- FOR the Repulbican party.
But IF you succeed with your "nuclear option" -- we stand here today to give you this very solemn promise. Please listen carefully:
Not only will we grind business to halt in the Senate, and derail your legislative agenda -- which is terrible for the working people of America anyway...
But IF you break this rule to grab even more power, we Democrats promise you -- we GUARANTEE -- that we will not fix it for you when -- yes, WHEN -- we are the majority again. And we WILL be the majority again, very soon. With your inept economic leadership, your trashing of America's standing in the world, your contempt for the privacy rights of American citizens, your dishonest governance at every level, and with your leadership steeped in corruption -- well, the days of Republican leadership are drawing quikcly to an end.
And then you will be stuck with this one-party system you've set in place. Every rule you have bent, every power grab you've made -- we'll keep them in effect. But you will now be on the other end. Don't count on us to fix it for you, because we won't. We'll be too busy cleaning up the mess you've made of this country.
And when you whine about it on Fox News, we will remind you of this day, and we'll say: but this is what you wanted! This was the stand you took! This is what you value! Remember?
And when you stammer, "but...but..."...well, then you'll have exposed that you really never had any values at all, except power. Because you're either lying about your principles now, or you'll be lying then. And at that point we'll tell you to sit down, and think about that for a while, and get back to us when and only when you're ready to help us fix the country and make it great again.
So I want everyone to remember this time, this day, when we Democrats control Congress again, and you Republicans inevitably cry "unfair" about not getting a seat at the table. We'll be happy to pull out all the many quotes and clips and remind you, and the press, and the people, who decided it was good to do business like this. You will have to live with the system you set up, and you'll have to like it. 'Cause we won't be helping you out of it.
That's a promise.