The wind howls outside this drafty window rattling like it has something to tell me. Amidst this oasis of political compromise in the Senate, something stirs beneath it all. Like this cold stormy May evening in New England, there’s an identity crisis spring sometimes suffers from around here. Though with the sun finally breaking through the gray clouds that seemed permanent over DC, I understand full well that this is a moment to savor and store away for the bad days that are sure to come. As the leaders we elected have actually made a deal in the spirit of the idea that tomorrow still matters.
An idea of what the senate is supposed to be and should still be when we’re dead and gone, was behind the compromise that has killed the nuclear option for the time being. Religious leader James Dobson responded with knife and fork in a cannibalistic expression of rage over the battle plan having been undone. Right-wing blogs were littered with complaints of traitors in the GOP, while left-wing blogs savored the only victory Democrats have experienced in years. Crusaders seeking re-election vowed to continue the fight another day, while the rest of them allowed the potent venom of perspective to seep in as reminder that they actually have jobs to do.
I have honestly felt that from the death of Mrs. Shiavo until today, there has been a plan to use these judicial nominations as a litmus test to see whether or not eliminating the filibuster could actually be accomplished. Why else would President Bush have nominated fewer judges than there were open seats? There were some brilliant politics at play as the focal point of the nominations was where Rove wanted it to be, on the concept of the fairness of an up or down vote on the Senate floor. For if more than enough nominees had been recommended by the President, focus would have been lost and the entire discussion would have centered around the question of, ‘why isn’t the highest confirmation rate in decades good enough?’ With only a short list of nominations, the politics were easier to manage on the lines of race or obstruction and the judges themselves easier to leverage and romanticize in a way that could trick the public into thinking that this was about fairness rather than power.
Dobson’s reaction tells me that elaborate plans had been made. No doubt a constitutional amendment defining marriage was on the agenda. The chances of such a thing passing within the existing rules of the Senate are now as hopeless as they were prior to the Presidential election. Without this as an achievable goal, all that remains are a series of far less significant initiatives, judicial nominations and a dangerously corrosive issue of obstructing stem cell research in the name of preserving life. Only the gay marriage amendment provided the religious right the chance to back a law that actually matched up with the public opinion. Besides this issue, they’ll be holding up religion versus the poll numbers, and that type of a dynamic can sometimes mean ‘game over’.
With social security reform, military realignment and reworking of the tax code and on the second term agenda, the battle over stem cells could tip the scales. Should a bill pass the Senate and land on the President’s desk, the first veto of his presidency would not be used on a spending bill, but instead one that aims to cure disease. With this in mind, the sudden calm that’s come over DC seems more like the eye of a storm than a sign of things to come. Too many players have high hopes unwisely dipped in anticipation, and before it unravels and everyone’s sole focus becomes reelection, expect those windows to rattle cold like winter yet a few more times this spring.
Posted by Al Swearengen in Al Swearengen, Politics, Religion