Personally, I don't have much use for the United States Senate and, consequentially, the 100 U.S. Senators. The White House, I like. The House of Representatives, I like. The Senate, I could do without it.
The main function of the Senate is to act as a patrician brake on the rabble rousing will of the people. We can't have mob rule breaking out. So the job of the Senate is to be obstructionists. Stick in the muds. Can't get alongs. Activity which doesn't win many points with me, me being a radical get-something-done activist type. The only reason that conservatives would like the function of the Senate is that they contribute to gridlock in Washington D.C. And, for small government conservatives, gridlock is a good thing.
While I merely dislike the Senate, I usually hold Senators in contempt. They are to a man, and occasionally a woman, pampered elites. Millionaire Ivy Leaguers. If America had royalty, it would be the U.S. Senators. The 100 princes and princesses of American government. They are bloated with power wielded over decades with Presidents coming and going while they sit on their thrones. As I recall from my history, Americans don't nuture an overfondness of royalty. Somehow the Senate survived our purging of the royals.
And now, post election, the Senate has come back into focus. With one Senator failing in his bid for the presidency and fading from the stage, another has emerged to engage the formidable focused energy of the blogosphere.
Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has stepped his pampered, pedicured, toe in the mud on the day after the election and is now front and center in the direct line of ire from the same conservative forces that swept President Bush to a convincing re-election.
Senator Specter has been here before. He routinely angers conservative Republican with his RINO (Republican in name only) stances. Most notably, he disgraced himself during the Senate's darkest hour by voting "not proved under Scottish Law" in the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton. We don't forget such disgraceful behavior..
Senator Specter survived a fierce primary challenge this year from a principled conservative rival who was clearly the superior candidate. How did he survive? President Bush dropped into Pennsylvania and campaigned for him. And how does Specter pay him back. He stabs him right in the back. Ted Kennedy couldn't have done it any better (although he tried on the education bill.) On the day after Bush's election victory, Specter held a press conference to announce that he would obstruct Bush's judicial nominees, from his pending position as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, if they were "out of the mainstream". That' liberal speak for conservatives, especially conservatives who are pro-life.
Imagine: A Republican, and a Republican who owes his seat directly to President Bush, steps to the microphone on the day after 59 million people spoke in support of the President to say essentially "not so fast, you've got to get past me".
Bottom line: Senator Arlen Specter must be denied the Chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee when the Senate meets next month to choose its leadership. Tradition be damned. Seniority be damned. You cannot reward this blatant disloyalty with power. Especially on the committee where possible Supreme Court nominees will be vetted. It's not going to happen.
The blogosphere is available, postelection, to be fully engaged in this fight. And if Sen. Arlen Specter thought he had a tough fight in his primary - he hasn't seen anything yet. We will bring him down. It's on now.
No comments:
Post a Comment