The Gang Of 14 Debacle Comes Back To Bite The GOP

by John Hawkins | November 9, 2006 9:36 am

I like John Podhoretz[1], but the spin he’s trying to get over here could not possibly be more wrong:

“Hey, gang of 14 haters. With Republicans in the minority, can you say right now you’re sorry that the Senate rules still allow for a filibuster?”

#1) Because the Republicans in the Senate foolishly refused to pull the trigger on the nuclear option when they had a chance, Bush is going to be in a really tight spot if another Supreme Court opening comes available in the final two years of his term.

That’s because the “Gang of 14” deal is no longer operative and since the GOP no longer has a majority, there is obviously no way that they can now change the Senate rules to block Democratic filibusters. That means if, let’s say Bush appoints a conservative judge and all the Republicans vote for that judge, along with a Democrat or two to get the number of Senators approving over 50, the Democrats can still choose to block that judge with a filibuster and there won’t be a thing that the GOP can do about it.

#2) If, in let’s say 2008, the Democrats are still in control of the Senate and let’s say a Democratic President takes over, the Republican ability to filibuster a Democratic SCOTUS nominee means absolutely nothing for two reasons.

First off, the Republicans have never filibustered to keep a SCOTUS nominee off the court and after probably half of them have now gone on the record calling the maneuver unconstitutional, they’re certainly not going to switch directions 180 degrees in 2008 and filibuster a Democratic President’s pick.

The second thing to remember is that just because the GOP was too soft and dumb to use the nuclear option when they had the opportunity doesn’t mean the Democrats would make the same mistake. If, somehow, someway, in say 2008, the GOP filibustered Hillary Clinton’s appointment of Anita Hill to the Supreme Court and the Democrats had a majority of Senate seats, they’d simply use the nuclear option and put a stop to it. And guess what? The left wing activists and the MSM would cheer them wildly for doing so.

Some of us tried to point out how badly Senator EgoMcCainiac, Mike DeWine, Lincoln Chafee, and the other weenies in the Gang-of-14 were screwing us way back when[2], but a lot of people didn’t pay attention. Now, we’re out of power and we may end up losing the opportunity to have a majority originalist Supreme Court because of the foolishness of 7 Republican Senators.

Endnotes:
  1. John Podhoretz: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjhkN2JiZmNjZjMxYmRlM2I0OTIxYTIyZDY4MTE1ZGU=
  2. way back when: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/archives/week_2005_09_18.PHP#004472

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