The first preliminary battlefield is coming up soon, over the airline bailout. It's not the money or the loan guarantees. In this economic environment both sides have seen the light, and the phony Social Security "surplus" will go back into the economy where it belongs. The bone of contention is that the Democrats' owners, the Trial Lawyers, have a terrorist act of their own in preliminary planning stages-against the airlines, for the usual negligence, etc., etc. The companies that insure airlines have already informed them that they cannot continue to do so without recalculated insurance premiums, enough to knock many of them out of the sky, and severely limit air travel as it tries to recover. Bush will back liability limitations, disarming the Tort Jihadists. Will Puff and co back their well-heeled plaintiff's bar string-pullers?
Perhaps Bush's momentum in the wake of his great speech tonight will push the briefcase-toting terrorists aside. But that would set the pattern for general tort reform, which would greatly assist the desired economic recovery. And the Holy War lawyers can't let the Great Satan take their gravy train away just because a few buildings went up, can they?
The coming settlement over airline tort protection will tell us a lot about the politics of the next several months. It will also indicate whether the left is going to allow Bush to lead the anti-terrorist struggle, or if they'll start manning their barricades right away, and the public be damned... |
