After viewing my various assortment of favorite Lefty bloggers, there seems to be a bit of a reaction of relief to how the Right is reacting to this deal. For example, two of my favorite bloggers, Chris Bowers over at Mydd posted their various reactions here:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/5/23/215941/383#comment_top
As did Kos via Crooks and Liars here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/23/21552/1503
and Dobson's reaction:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/23/221622/176
(which Joe on Americablog posted this Dobson statement as well).
While I tend to highly respect all of the bloggers mentioned, I must also respectfully strongly disagree with their direct or implied sentiments by posting the other side's opinions on the matter.
More on the flip
My question really here is - why the hell should we really care what the other side thinks about this issue?
Okay, actually two questions - do you honestly think the Republicans at any point since their '94 takeover have ever really given a flyin' shit about what the Democrats think on any given issue? Is there some reason why we should ever be returning the favor?
Putting that aside for just a moment, let's just consider what the Democrats really got - NOTHING. Absofuckinglutely nothing, period. We just promised not to use the filibuster unless under "extraordinary circumstances", which is pretty loosely defined already. If Owens and Brown are not an "extraordinary circumstance" when one considers their extremist AND corrupt records, what exactly determines an "extraordinary circumstance" in the future? So there's the Democrat "win", right? Whatever folks.
The Republicans, however, got 3 of their hardcore extremist judges to go through a full up or down vote, which if I were a bettin' man I'd bet the house they'll pass through. And they merely promised not to destroy Senate rules on the filibuster. And we all know how good Republicans are at keeping their promises...
Let's keep in mind, there were really NO future promises made that were relevant. The Democrats did not promise they wouldn't use the filibuster again, nor did the Republicans and Bush promise not to have extremist judges go through the Senate Judiciary Committee.
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with Reid on this one - no warning message was sent to Bush on this at all. Quite the contrary - this only confirmed the notion that when push came to shove, the Dems. break like twigs once again. The Republicans stood up for their extremist judges, and they got them to pass through. This was a fight worth puruing to the bitter end, and once again the Dems. showed little backbone to go to the final round on this. So I think this whole thing showed two possible reasons why Reid backed off:
- He didn't have enough votes
- He believes at least 1 or more of these extremists will not get through the full Senate up or down vote.
As stated previously, I don't believe #2, simply because when push comes to shove, unlike the Dems. the Repubs. stay together and work as a cohesive unit on practically any given issue (exception is of course social security). So Reid likely didn't have enough votes. But like I said, so what? This was the fight to take to the mat, Reid. You had all your ducks lined up, only to have them thrown in a barrel for Rove and Dobson to shoot through.
So in conclusion, I honestly don't care what the "other" side has to say about this. For all we know it could be a complete smokescreen while they quietly laugh behind our backs. But putting that tinfoil hat idea aside, I think it is both irrelevant and immaterial to the Democratic argument on blocking these judges.
At least the Democratic argument that I thought the Democrats were correctly utilizing.