September 15, 2005

John Roberts is a "ruthless political operative" who believes torture is constitutional
by Liza Sabater

Maryscott O'Connor posted this David Podvin essay over at DailyKos under the monicker John Roberts is a DOUCHEBAG.

I've never heard of Povnin before but this is what I call love at first rant. My virtual panties are yours David ... Viggo Mortensen is going to have to wait in line.

The refusal by the Senate Democrats to fight this nomination with unrestrained righteous fury is the ultimate betrayal of the liberal rank and file. It is an act of cowardice that cannot be rationalized with the standard deceitful rhetorical cover of engaging in a "shrewd tactical retreat while keeping our powder dry". The tactical retreat in which the Democrats invariably engage is perpetual rather than shrewd. And there is no powder, dry or otherwise. Political leverage is never gained by capitulating. If it were, the Democrats would already possess enough dry powder to blow the Earth off its axis. Weakness merely begets the perception of weakness, which just happens to be the Democrats' greatest electoral problem.

According to numerous surveys conducted through the years, the primary reason Democrats lose elections is that the public perceives they stand for nothing. While Reid and company obsess about avoiding the perception of being obstructionist, the electorate keeps rejecting the Democrats for lacking principles, and the Democrats keep responding by refusing to take a stand. This
is professional malfeasance at its most irrational.

The dirty little open secret of the Senate Democratic Caucus is that its members have far more contempt for their liberal supporters than they have for their conservative opponents. In repudiating the filibuster, Feinstein bitterly criticized progressive activist groups for pressuring her to oppose Roberts "regardless of the merits". The merits are that Roberts is a malicious ideologue yearning to annihilate the liberal base. Yet to the Seven Democratic Dwarfs who crafted the nuclear option compromise, that factor is infinitely less important than getting themselves praised by the corporate media for being statesmanlike, i.e., doing the bidding of big business.

While the Republicans represent their constituents by playing power politics and constantly pushing the envelope, the inert Democrats fade further into irrelevancy. Happily, this gruesome scenario cannot last much longer because the Democrats will soon have no principles left to abandon and no loyalists left to betray.

As I said, I am in love. But the money quote :

If Democratic senators can’t bring themselves to oppose this reprobate they must be defeated in the primaries. That’s what would happen to Republican senators if they allowed the confirmation of a leftist equivalent of Roberts. The wrath of the right wing base would be sufficiently intense to curdle lava, and their senators would be replaced. Rank and file conservatives care about their principles, vile though those principles are.

Roberts embodies the moral squalor of the right wing. A vote against filibustering him is a vote to repeal the New Deal, to eliminate Roe v Wade, to strike down the Violence Against Women Act, to revisit the 1964 Civil Rights Act, to outlaw gay marriage, to abjure labor law, to eviscerate environmental protections, to deregulate multi-national conglomerates, and on and on and on. He also believes that torture is constitutional.

I'm all for getting rid of these suckers. Let's rock and roll, baby ... and Viggo can tag along too.

Posted by Liza Sabater in Democrats, John Roberts, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Viggo Mortensen
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Found inSeptember 15, 2005 01:31 PM

Say it loud, say it proud!