I saw a familiar photo yesterday and something clicked: another State of the Union Address is upcoming and another rush to engineer a PR moment is leading to a disaster.
The photo: the hydra-headed plume of the Challenger Space Shuttle, the explosion of which glued me to a television twenty years ago yesterday. By now most probably know that the Challenger exploded because it was too cold outside; the late Richard Feynman demonstrated that the O-rings on the solid rocket booster would not operate properly in the ambient temperature. But despite misgivings, the launch had gone ahead anyway. Why? Because Ronald Reagan's handlers wanted him to be able to greet Christa McAuliffe -- the first teacher in space -- in his State of the Union address that evening.
You know where this is going. More on the flip.
It's twenty years later. Another State of the Union Address. Another rush to finish things on time for the PR value to the President. Another disaster in the making.
President Bush wants to welcome Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. And so the Senate Republicans have been instructed not to let anything get in the way of a successful vote.
Make no mistake: this is a vote about changing our system of government, from one of checks and balances to one where the President has plenary, unreviewable power to act as Commander-in-Chief, and the practical ability to extend that Commander-in-Chief role into the domestic sphere without apparent limitation. Alito has given no indication that he will do anything other than embrace theories which, only a few years ago, even the Bush Administration characterized as unconstitutional.
And we're not going to give such a fundamental change in our system of government enough time to debate? We're going to hurriedly rewrite the civics textbooks and undercut our ability to promote a world of effective rather than nominal democracies -- just so the President can get the sound bite and visual he wants on Tuesday night?
Senators, slow down this rush to madness. Take the time to do what the Reagan Administration blocked twenty years ago: to explore the implications of our actions. The Challenger Disaster was a terrible thing for our nation. The Alito Disaster, and the imperial Presidency it heralds, will be incalculably worse.
(Copyleft 2006.)