mouse_rants

Seems I may have to give up being a Democrat. Sen Reid is said to be against filibustering Alito, "because he thinks Democrats might incur too much ill will for opposing a candidate who is considered well-qualified, whatever his ideology." (New York Times). What, exactly, makes this man well-qualified? He is clearly way out there on a lot of issues - his own colleagues on the bench disagree with him. And ideology is important - if it were all cut and dried, we wouldn't need 9 Supreme Court justices, we would only need one, to just run a new law through the old Constitution-checker, and get a yes or no answer.  Look at how many split decisions there are - 5-4, 6-3 - what does that mean, if not that a person's opinions (i.e., ideology) have an impact?

My brother told me over Christmas he was ready to give up on the Democrats if they didn't start showing some backbone, and I'm afraid he's right.  What difference does it make having them there, if they aren't willing to do anything?

The pro-Bush Republicans will never cease bearing the Democrats ill-will - nothing short of Hillary Clinton hanging herself in the Senate chamber after delivering a speech recanting ever action she has ever taken, with the rest of the party leadership committing seppuku at her feet, will make them happy.  And a lot of other people are waiting to be given a legitimate option.  They are willing to start bearing ill-will against a party that refuses to do anything but waffle and cringe in fear. Standing up and fighting something that has been talked about for _months_ would be a start.  I guess the unspoken fear is of the Republicans pulling the "nuclear option".  Well, let them.  I'm not convinced they'd really be willing to do it - and if they did, they would should people how little they care about actual democracy, the voice of the people, or fair play.

Might actually generate a little ill-will against them.