who is it, again, that needs to put up or shut up?

marjorie says...

You know what's both amusing and annoying to me in the aftermath of the Democratic sweep of Congress? All the "put up or shut up" talk in the media. As if the Republican control of our government over the past six years hasn't been one of the worst examples ever of gross mismanagement. We have an enormous debt that we might never crawl out from under, a war gone disastrously wrong (not that it was ever right) with almost 3000 U.S. troops and untold number of Iraqi's dead, huge tax cuts for the super rich, a wall reminiscent of Berlin being built on our border and a judiciary well on its way to being stacked with ideological reactionaries.

Let's take the issue of judicial nominees to illustrate my point. In this article, we have a political analyst from CBS, Andrew Cohen, saying this:

"But Senate Democrats will face their own pressure points if and when Webb prevails. No longer will they be able, politically anyway, to threaten to filibuster when the President appoints federal judges. If they obtain their majority, they will have a responsibility to fill the many vacancies on the federal bench-- some that have existed for years. If they balk at this job they will subject themselves to an honest charge of obstructionism, the opposite of what they pledged to do on election night when the extent of their victory became clear.

"There is an opportunity now, I believe, for real progress on the judicial nomination front, which has been mired for years in rank partisan conflict. The President has to know from these election results that he must govern with a more moderate focus. And if Webb prevails in Virginia Senate Democrats have to know that their newfound power brings with it newfound responsibilities to ensure that our federal judiciary is up and running at full speed, with many fewer vacancies than it now has. The moment is here. Let's see what the politicians can do with it. "

Where does CBS find its political analysts? No, the Democrats won't be able to filibuster any longer, they'll be able to flat out stop the stacking of the courts. And if the Republicans threaten to filibuster, the Democrats can do what they did...remember?? Of course, we all know the Democrats don't have that kind of hard ball in them.

As for the vacancies on the federal bench...who's responsibility is that, again? The Republicans had control of the Congress for 12 long years. Let's not forget that. What is this fellow talking about..."if they balk at this job"?? Something tells me that if Bush sends middle of the road judges to a Democratically controlled congress, that bench will get filled up quick...unlike the behavior of the Republican congress under Clinton or Bush. The Republicans held up the vast majority of Clinton's nominees and who can forget Harriet Miers??

This type of analysis is a good example of what is rampant in American politics...speaking and acting as if there was no yesterday. But nothing ever operates in a vacuum...and we can't judge today or predict tomorrow unless we have a good handle on that.