Just two years ago the administration withdrew the name of Miguel Estrada, an outstanding lawyer and exemplar of the American Dream, to sit on a federal court of appeals because Democrats (with their Moderates doing nothing) filibustered his nomination. Just yesterday, a bipartisan group of Senators reached an agreement that will allow votes on the nominations of Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla R. Owen, and William Pryor, three nominees opposed by most Democrats in the Senate and deemed anathema by Liberal groups across the nation. The deal also requires that the seven Democratic Senators of the bipartisan group will vote to invoke cloture to end filibusters of judicial nominees unless “extraordinary” circumstances exist and requires Republicans to suspend their current efforts to end all filibustering of judicial nominees.
If this agreement holds, Brown, Owen, and Pryor will be confirmed and the filibustering of judicial nominees simply because they are Conservatives or people of faith will end. Regarding the agreement, Majority Leader Frist was entirely correct to say that it “has some good news, it has some disappointing news, and will require careful monitoring.” As expected, Minority Leader Harry Reid excellently played his role as a high priest of politics, the religion of Liberals, as he babbled nonsense that the agreement reveals that “abuse of power will not be tolerated, and attempts to trample the Constitution and grab absolute control are over.”
Common sense tells all of us engaged in the fight to end Liberal Judicial Activism (and any other kind of judicial activism) that before we consider this agreement a significant battle won, we must indeed monitor it carefully. Yet, no sooner was the agreement announced that I heard some pundits deem it a setback for the administration, a loss for Frist, and a loss for Senator McCain and his Republican counterparts.
Keeping in mind that this agreement represents only one battle in the fight, I fail to see how anyone can conclude that the seating of Brown, Owen, and Pryor on the federal bench and others like them to follow (including, I hope, Miguel Estrada) represents a loss, unless one falls for the two-pronged trap with which Liberals are attempting to ensnare the varied, energetic, intellectually vibrant Conservative movement which is continually attracting new adherents among all groups of the American population.
One prong of this trap is represented by Mrs. Clinton’s expediently false and insidiously unprincipled “move to the Center,” which says to Middle America, “I am one of you.”
The other is represented by Mr. Reid, his cohorts such as Senators Kennedy and Schumer, and allies such as Howard Dean and the Move-On crowd. It first promotes the vicious lie that Conservatives, especially Conservatives of deep religious conviction, are a homogeneous group of uneducated reactionaries who unquestioningly obey their “leaders.” Then it seeks to set these “hysterical extremists” against each other.
With these realities in mind, I praise Senators such as John McCain, John Warner, and Mike DeWine, though I wish they had said, “If we cannot arrive at a good faith agreement with Moderate Democrats, we will vote with our fellow Republicans to end entirely the filibustering of judicial nominees.” I also praise people such as Dr. James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and a host of other advocates and scholars for their work to put an end to judicial activism and to the prejudice directed against Conservative judicial nominees, praise that does not require me to agree with every last religious and social belief held by this diverse group.
My hope is that none of us who have joined the fight against Liberalism and Liberal Judicial Activism will insult ourselves and harm our cause by buying the poisonous snake oil sold by the likes of Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Reid. My hope is that we will agree that the current situation requires “careful monitoring,” my hope is that we will agree that the fight continues, my hope is that we will agree that the fight never ends.
Copyright by A.J. DiCintio
