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Yesterday the Senate approved William H. Pryor Jr.'s nomination to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Bush had gifted Pryor with a recess appointment to the court last year. Pryor was one of the 10 appeals court nominees that Democrats had managed to stall. But that all ended with that baffling deal that they were cowed into agreeing to because of the threat by republican leader Frist to force a vote to end the use of the filibuster with regard to judicial nominees.
Two other blocked nominees, Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown, have slunk into their appointed judgeships on the breeze that is flowing through the open door that our hapless minority abandoned with their votes on the filibuster 'compromise'. That vote amounted to nothing more than a cave-in to Frist's constitution thuggery. Now we have three more enemies of democracy, justice, and the constitution whose advancements to these high courts is another in a long line of victories for these corporatist republican legislators, and another in a long line of stunning defeats and appeasements in this Congress by the outnumbered Democrats.
All of these 10 blocked nominees are appalling in their disregard for basic civil rights, established law, and due process, but I think William H. Pryor Jr. is the largest curd in the conservative's cheese. As I watch his advancement, I'm left to wonder just where our party will stand in the way of Bush's conservative cabal's crusade to destroy our democracy. Pryor has more than enough outrageous baggage to keep him off of a local school board, but apparently that's not enough for some Democrats to oppose him, certainly not enough for our party to keep their places in the door, blocking his advancement.
One of those 'Democrats' who let Pryor pass was Bush's buddy, "Benny" Sen. Ben Nelson. He used to call him Nellie until the Senator asked him to stop. He's one of a handful of Senators who voted for the torture general, Gonzales.
Not surprisingly Nelson is one of a gang of kiss-ass democrats will give cover for Bush's assault on Social Security. Forty-three of the 44 Democrat senators however, plus Independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont, signed a letter to the president saying it was "immoral" to borrow more money to pay for the plan. Nelson of Nebraska was the only Democrat who refused to sign the letter.
Nelson has a history of siding with Bush at times when it visibly stung his own party. During Bush's previous efforts to have the controversial nominee, Pryor, appointed to the 11th U.S. District Court of Appeals, only two Democrats broke ranks to vote for him. They were Sens. Zell Miller of Georgia and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.
Pryor had spoken out against the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned a Texas law penalizing gay sex acts between consenting adults. In a brief filed with the high court on behalf of Alabama, Pryor compared homosexuality to "prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography and even incest and pedophilia."
During the presidential campaign Karl Rove had been talking to Sen. Nelson about joining the Bush administration as Agriculture Secretary. When pressed as to whether he would consider the job if Bush offered it, Nelson said: “Any time the President talks, you listen."
Nelson apparently is more inclined to favor the the President than he does the leader of his own party. When Sen. Harry Reid was picked Nelson commented, "“When the conservative talk show hosts start saying bad things about Harry Reid,” Nelson said,” it will be like attacking Mr. Rogers.”
Nelson is just one more of those kiss-ass moderates who's enabling these republican, war-loving, Social Security killing corporatists. The sooner we can find some Democrat to replace him, the better. I know we need the guy on whatever vote he will make to keep his Dem sheep clothing on, but with the balance already hopelessly skewed against us in the Senate, I think we would not miss his bend-over politics.
Another Democrat, Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, also voted for Pryor. He and Nelson were directly involved, as well, in the filibuster 'compromise'. He's another question mark, looking to establish some conservative credentials like Nelson. He did vote to oppose Pricilla Owen's nomination, but I'm left to wonder how determinative these minority votes are with the deck stacked against our party. These minority votes could just be posturing or positioning rather than a true effort to change the outcome. That's why the use filibuster is so important for the minority party. It may be the only lever available to stave off a republican engineered disaster. It is their civilized form of civil disobedience.
There's a great deal of talk coming from the leaders and members of our Democratic party. Good talk, important rhetoric, but little in the way of an effective opposition. I don't mean to suggest that our goals, or our mission is flawed, but our strategy to date hasn't been effective at all in halting the momentum of the ruling oligarchy. The Iraq war, for example, rages on, opposed by an increasing number of Americans, but aided by a compliant Congress at appropriations time.
If ever there was a time for a Jimmy Stewart moment, this is it. Someone on Capitol Hill, with their fine, eloquent words of opposition needs to come down off of their white horse and bar the door. Someone who would call themselves a Democrat. Someone who has no interest in clubbing around with the cadre of the privileged few who would lord over their wealth in the offices of our government, that two-percent confederation of corporate interests who routinely divide the fruits of our labor for their own benefit and purpose.
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