It's About The 2008 Election Stupid

 

 

The Washington Post discerns a strategy emerging from John Kerry and his actions this week in yodeling a filibuster demand from the Swiss Alps to block the confirmation of Samuel Alito. Kerry has decided that the blogs and the leftist activists that control them own the Democratic Party future and has aligned himself with them for better or worse. I wrote about it last Saturday, when I discovered last Saturday that he was blogging at the Daily Kos site.

Liberal activists seemed to have slightly more influence with their campaign to persuade Senate Democrats to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. Despite several polls showing that the public opposes the effort, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) on Thursday strongly advocated the filibuster plan -- and wrote about his choice on the Daily Kos, a Web site popular with liberals. Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), a leading liberal and critic of the Iraq war, told reporters Kerry's viewpoint is not shared by most in a culturally conservative swing state such as West Virginia. Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) also opposes the filibuster. ...

"John Kerry is beginning to bring the traditional Democratic leadership in Washington together with the untraditional netroots activists of the country," James Boyce wrote on the Huffington Post. "A man often accused of being the ultimate Washington insider looked outside of the beltway and saw the concern, in fact, the distress among literally millions of online Democrats."

Other Democrats, Boyce wrote, "triangulated, fabricated, postulated and capitulated."

It is quite obvious to all observers that Kerry is desperate in his desire to win the Presidency, and that he will do whatever it takes to distance himself from the past  failures by being the all emerging Kerry the Daily Kos radical. As for the Alito filibuster, and this sudden desire, it's all about the 2008 elections stupid:

Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee, is considering another bid in 2008, and liberal groups that urged a filibuster will play important roles in the early primary process. Those groups strongly defended Kerry, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and others who refused to end debate on Alito this week despite the urging of Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

What does that mean? It will help fuel the split on the Left that started with Dean's ascension as primary front-runner in 2003. Instead of refocusing efforts to appear reasonable to the American voters, the party will have its radical wing on full flight in 2006, drawing attention to its passionate insistence on obstructionism, impeachment, surrender in Iraq and Southwest Asia, and the further growth of socialism in the US. All of this will prove exceeding popular -- with 20% of the American electorate. Unfortunately, as the Dean Scream and the Kerry presidential campaign showed, it doesn't translate into electoral victory. It doesn't even translate into good fundraising, as the DNC has discovered during Dean's chairmanship of the party.

Kerry's actions this week are all about positioning himself as the anti-Establishment candidate for 2008, the Eugene McCarthy of the next presidential election cycle. Just as he stole a march on Howard Dean after the Vermont governor stumbled in Iowa, Kerry plans to manipulate the left-wing elements of the base to carry him through the primaries against the party Establishment's choice, Hillary Clinton. If that means civil war in the Democratic Party, then Kerry appears happy to foment it.

What will the Democrats win from all this? They will have momentarily obstructed a nominee who has the support of 2/3rds of the country for confirmation, proving yet again to be nothing more than knee-jerk obstructionists. They will have lost the filibuster for all the other judicial nominations, which would mean a return of Henry Saad to the list. It will also mean that if Stevens or Ginsburg leave the court in the next three years -- a distinct possibility -- the Democrats will have no means to stop Janice Rogers Brown or Priscilla Owen from taking their place. They will have lost all leverage with which to bargain. And along the way, they will have once again emphasized their inability to produce anything positive with all of the smear tactics and character assassination in which they indulged, a chapter so shameful that even their own senior member stood on the floor of the Senate and called it a "disgrace".

Now for some more lunacy from the 'Cry Wolf Whilst Pointing To A Hamster' department, we have even Senator Ted Kennedy being included in the Daily Kos hall of famous bloggers no doubt somewhere close to an article entitled "Shit Eating Collaborator Monkeys" as was the misfortune of Kerry's column.

Thank you to Michelle Malkin for the heads up.

The third musketeer had to be Senator Clinton who has come out in favour of an Alito filibuster. erhaps she will blog at Atrios right next to their usual title 'Wanker Of The Day'. Charming.

Mark Noonan @ B4B tells it like it is: "Clinton is the triangulating Democrat - a person who is building her entire political future on the basis of her being the moderate able to reach across partisan lines...but she isn't a moderate, and her Party is enthralled to the far left, and the Alito fight is exposing it for all to see." He does however think that they will succeed, and as he puts it: "God be praised."

The Times reports that "Democrats cringed and Republicans jeered at the awkwardness of Kerry's gesture, which almost no one in the Senate expects to succeed."

And of course the filibuster cannot succeed. Seven Democratic senators are on record as renouncing the filibuster except in "extraordinary circumstances," and it's hard to think of a circumstance more ordinary than Kennedy and Kerry behaving like fools. The other reason of course is that they need 41 votes for a filibuster, which everyone in the Senate knows they will not get. Daily Kos is working overtime to attack the problem. Good luck.

But I feel confident about the careers of the would be President and the Massachusetts Democratic side kick, according to our friend the Democratic Consultant Markos Moulitsas who runs the popular Daily Kos, they have a future as professional bloggers:

The new twist in this debate is the Web, which in recent election cycles emerged as a powerful political force, one expected to figure even more prominently as more people get high-speed connections and turn to the Internet for news and commentary. Unlike the past, the "pressure is conveyed through a faster, better organized, more insistent medium," said Jim Jordan, a Democratic strategist.

Kerry's sudden passion for a filibuster, has of course nothing to do with electing Judge Alito. He has now separated himself from the current party leadership to make himself the chief representative of the activist base. He wants to convince the bloggers and the special-interest groups that run the Democratic Party that he speaks for them, not for some namby-pamby centrist urge promoted by the Democratic Leadership Council.

Related on ATB:

Daily Kos Is A Mouthpiece For Kerry's Campaign
It's 'Hatched'
Alito The Radical
Alito 'The Untouchable
Alito's Justice Will Prevail
The Ship Of Fools
Cry Wolf Whilst Pointing To A Hamster
Joining Forces In Scalitovision 2005

More @ The Volokh Conspiracy, Betsy's Page, Stop The ACLU, The Corner on National, Decision '08, Althouse, Decision '08 (different post), Betsy's Page,(different post) Roger L. Simon, Althouse (different post), Below The Beltway, California Conservative, Carol Platt Liebau,  Sister Toldjah, Opinion Journal
Andrew Sullivan, BrothersJudd Blog, Publius Rendezvous

Comments

[Dumb Ox]

Dear Alexandra,

Over at the Dumb Ox we have also been covering this silly filibuster prospect.

It's just a concession to the homo-abortion lobby. Abramoff scandal? Hilarious.

Yours faithfully,
D. Ox
http://thomistic.blogspot.com

[weekenderman]

John said: "No shouting, no banner waving. Just a silent and dignified protest against Bush's attempt to destroy the founding fathers' conception of balance of power, judicial review, and congressional oversight."

And just how would that be "dignified," John? It actually sounds very childish . . . which is about par for today's Democraniac Party.

[Nasty_Ninety]

I am thinking about the idea of forming another political party solution. I think that has been tried before here in the USA. Anyone remember Ross Perot and how he split the vote? He was going to pull out of the election until he had a meeting with Bill Clinton and Al Gore. The consiquences of Perot staying in that election was that Bill Clinton gained the Presidency.

[Papa Ray]

God save our Republic.

Because he is the only one who can.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

[Stefan]

The most serious problem with the Democrats and the political Left in the US at the present time is that they have become intellectually hollow on domestic social issues, on national security, and issues pertaining to international relations. “If you believe in nothing you will fall for anything” would be a fitting epitaph to what was once a serious political party. If we, as a country, are to have real, serious, “grown-up” debates on real, serious, and “grown-up” issues like Race Relations, Education, the War on Terrorism, Iraq, Abortion, etc. etc. then it is absolutely imperative that we use real information and real facts in coming to decisions that affect our lives so deeply. The Democrats have shown no intention of doing so. Even the most respected and senior members have slid into the abyss of elevating half-truths, intentional mischaracterizations, distortions, and rumors to level of unassailable fact and have used these as a basis to make decisions and attack every policy that is put forward. This is irresponsible in the extreme especially because it is done solely for the sake of tearing down and smashing anything that is even remotely connected with the Bush administration in the hopes of regaining power. It is unfathomable to me that this is taken so far as to even endanger the lives of the very people they wish to lead, the troops that would fight on their orders, and the very social fabric of our society. They no longer have a viable platform of serious ideas or solutions for anything. They are chasing the Republicans around opposing everything they say or do without exception. The Republicans are far from perfect but in general they have shown some sense of vision for the country and the world, albeit a bit wobbly-kneed at times, and they are still proud of what America is and what it stands for. This is not a game. We are not here to win cheap points or cheers from foul mouthed, crystal-gripping, college student protesters. The Democrats need to “grow-up” very soon…like now! We need them because they are Americans too and we should be at least on the same planet when we make serious decisions. The terrorists sure as hell are being serious and they are not playing waffle-ball out there. When people dismiss the entire text and message of the president’s State of the Union speech as lies days before it is even given it is just a case in point. This all reminds me seeing a child in a store throwing a temper tantrum where their parents are forced to literally drag them along because they simply have refused to continue walking.

[Alexandra]

John,

Even though your personal mantra is simultaneously repeated verbatim elsewhere and you obviously simply copy paste it onto several unrelated issue discussions to aggravate the right side of the blogosphere, I shall humor you with a response.

Perhaps calling us "Fascist filth swallowers" makes you feel better, but it does not alter the fact that your own party is responsible for it's downfall, NO ONE ELSE. And the so called "dignified walkout" you dream about is never going to happen, again for no other reason other than the incompetency of the screaming banshee Democratic Senators YOU as a party, no one else, have democratically elected.

You have to stop blaming others for your own party's inadequacies and shortcomings, and start looking at your so called filth outside your own doorstep. You can't just keep jumping over the excrement outside your own doorstep and then run to the other side and scream how "they are full of shit".

No one is responsible for the downgrading of your own party and no amount of name calling of the other side, including your own President is going to change that.

Sort yourselves out and then come back and insult, the insults may carry more weight then. As it stands it just makes you all look desperate.

[Liquid]

Posted by: tankerboy
Who is with me in calling for a third party? I would title it the "Moderate Party

How about the "Back2Common Sense Party" - a party that doesn't give a s!@# about being politically correct?

[John Palcewski]

We all know what Bush is going to say Tuesday night, and how he'll say it. What's more we know that immediately afterward Karl "turd blossom" Rove will get the propaganda machinery running at full speed to paint a rosy picture for that brain-dead 42 percent of the electorate who eagerly swallow this Fascist filth whole.

There's one way to affect the news coverage of the upcoming Bush/Rove tap dance. And that is when Bush begins his SOTU lies, every Democrat in the chamber should simply get up and walk out. No shouting, no banner waving. Just a silent and dignified protest against Bush's attempt to destroy the founding fathers' conception of balance of power, judicial review, and congressional oversight.

Yes, I know. This will never happen. Bush will blather, and the conventional media's stenographers will just repeat his bullshit as if it isn't bullshit.

And then back to business as usual.

[tankerboy]

Who is with me in calling for a third party? I would title it the "Moderate Party" and shoot for the 40% of people in the middle of any discussion. For that matter, it would only need about 15% of the seats in the House or Senate to wield a lot of power. "You want our votes for Speaker? How about chairmanship of the budget committee?"

[Darrell]

Don't bet on it! Keep in mind, these people actually believe they are winning the minds and hearts of the American people. They actually believe their versions of Pravda and Izvestia---unlike the Russians.

[skeneogden]

The Democrats remind me of the Whigs in the 1840's. Self destructive at their core and sinking faster than the Titanic. We may be witnessing the complete dissolution of the party.

Maybe the Phoenix that rises from these ashes will be better able to engage the other side in honest discourse.

[Paul of York]

I've been waiting for people of class to post some comments so I can squeeze my amateur rambling in the middle. Failing that, I'll only say after reading this terrific post that if Kerry once again wins the Democratic nomination I will become physically ill and disappointed, not only in the fact that he is the best the Democrats can do but in the fact that so many millions voted for him.
No matter what he does, he should by now be recognized for the man who turns depending on the group he is addressing. How can he be taken seriously? Yet he might.