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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Palau who wrote (125448)	2/5/2001 9:55:58 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

The Democrats go Down for the Count By J. PETER MULHERN PeeWee Daschle needs a new nickname. From now on he should be known as "the Eunuch," or perhaps as "Monica" in recognition of his new role as the president's girlfriend. Daschle and his henchpersons have been claiming a moral victory because they marshaled 42 Democrat votes against John Ashcroft's confirmation as Attorney General. This is supposed to demonstrate that Democrats could frustrate the president by mounting a filibuster, a maneuver that only works if there are 41 votes against a cloture resolution that would end debate. Little Chuckie Schumer went so far as to call the vote a "shot across the president's bow" warning him to avoid conservative nominees for fear that the Democrats will rediscover their long-lost cojones and stymie a confirmation. This is the official Democrat version of the lessons to be learned from the Ashcroft battle. It is complete nonsense. The truth is that George W. Bush just beat Daschle up and took his lunch money. The Democrats may believe that they can still stand up to the president if they really want to. This belief might make them feel better as they slowly come to terms with their own irrelevance. But now that they've been rolled once they are likely to make a habit out of it. If the Democrats could have sustained a filibuster against Ashcroft why didn't they? A string of their most prominent senators reared up on their hind legs before the cameras and pronounced Ashcroft a dire threat to our most fundamental values; then they stood aside and let him take office. There can be only one explanation for this bizarre behavior. Democrats didn't filibuster because they knew they couldn't win a cloture vote. Many of them could find barely enough courage to cast a meaningless protest vote against Ashcroft. They lacked the stomach for a serious confrontation with the White House. This was not mere cowardice. It represents rational political calculation. Senate Democrats may not be very bright, but they have a certain low cunning of the sort that permits many nasty creatures to survive. As usual, they knew what was good for them. Newt Gingrich learned to his cost that very few voters want Congress to gum up the works of government by saying no to the president. Senate Democrats can't afford to be seen as willing to bring everything to a halt just to make life difficult for President Bush. The White House and the Republican Senate leaders could easily get as much mileage out of a filibuster, especially a filibuster over a confirmation, as Bill Clinton got out of the infamous government shutdown. If the Democrats tried to protect America from a conservative Attorney General, or for that matter a conservative Supreme Court Justice, by mounting a filibuster Republicans would have to call their bluff. The Senate would be paralyzed while the Democrats spewed vitriol, hour after hour, day after day, week after week. It would be the worst sort of political theater and a catastrophe for the Democrats. If the Republicans kept their nerve, the filibuster would be doomed to embarrassing failure. With leadership from the White House, even Trent Lott would probably be able to keep his nerve. Democrats can't afford to play the filibuster card and the Ashcroft confirmation proves that they know it. Without that card, Democrats in Washington have a loosing hand. We'll be hearing a great deal more about their moral victories in the months to come because their real victories are going to be rarer than hens' teeth. John Ashcroft's confirmation fight demonstrated the Democrats' weakness and irresolution, but it did more than that. It made them weaker and less resolute. Democrats showed in debate that they are captives of the most extreme pressure groups in Washington. They are the party of NARAL and NAMBLA. Republicans couldn't ask for a more inviting target. A number of Senators made their party look particularly bad. The Ashcroft debate showcased Ted Kennedy, the gynocidal dipsomaniac from Massachusetts who is the mascot of the loony left. Whenever Ted commands public attention outside his home state the Democrat Party's image moves further from the mainstream. He is particularly damaging when he commands public attention by pressing the claim that nobody is fit for high office unless he thinks court-ordered bussing was a good idea and promotes the wholesale slaughter of the unborn. Other Democrats were, if possible, even more embarrassing than Ted. Jean Carnahan deserves special mention. She owes her Senate seat to John Ashcroft's gallantry. Ashcroft had solid grounds for a challenge to the process that put her where she is. He chose not to make that challenge. Mrs. Carnahan turned right around and bit the hand that so graciously fed her by voting no on Ashcroft's nomination. I've known ferrets with a stronger sense of gratitude. After eight years of Clinton it takes a special gift for a freshman Senator to make Democrats look trashy. Jean Carnahan has that gift. Holy Joe Lieberman makes Mrs. Carnahan look like a lady. He voted no after giving a nauseating lecture about the evils of any attack on the religious beliefs of a nominee. Lieberman heard his colleagues say, over and over again, that Ashcroft's beliefs were so "strongly and deeply held" that he could not put them aside and administer the law fairly. Every Democrat reference to Ashcroft's deep convictions was a coded message of bigotry. Anyone with the brains God gave a goat can decipher the message. Democrats believe Evangelical Christians can't be trusted. Lieberman knew he was joining a secular lynch mob when he added his voice to the Democrat chorus against John Ashcroft. As usual, party loyalty meant more to him than religious conviction or even elementary decency. May the Lord in his wisdom grant the Democrats many moral victories like the confirmation of John Ashcroft. Congratulations Mr. Attorney General. washington-weekly.com