Sunday, April 17, 2005
Manning the Barricades
Ed Morrisey at Captain's Quarters has a VERY provocative polemic here. His argument is a very simple one and easy to understand. The "Republican leadership" in the Senate continues to dither and stall when it comes to changing the rules to the Senate to make judicial appointments off limits to filibusters. They have considered it and moved ever . . . so . . . slowly towards actually pulling the trigger that the base has grown restive and frustrated at the pace of things. Mr. Morrisey's post captures the feelings of the base very well.
Mr. Morrisey has cooled his jets a little and is backing up his case here and here.
In the first of the two posts linked to above, he makes the case that promises made should be promises kept. Breaking promises on important matters like the status of the President's judicial nominees is a sure fire way to send a party back into minority status. The second post deals with conversations that he has had with someone close to the process and how the dithering by the GOP leadership has led to tarnished reputations and worn out nominees and hurt families. While Mr. Morrisey is making a very powerful case for vengeful action now, I have only one major caveat with his posts. Mr. Morrisey would do well to look at the success of The Club For Growth and a line from one of the parenting books my wife and I have read and reach the same conclusion: pick your fights very carefully and win them every time. The Club's success isn't in that they went after every Connie Morrella in sight, their success was that they went after wayward Republicans who could have easily afforded to do better and by inserting their own strong candidates into open races where the GOP establishment wanted a more "congenial" candidate. Go ahead and withhold funds from the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Go ahead and support Democrat opponents of liberal GOP incumbents. Go ahead and do all of these things, but please do so in a way that does not damage those who have fought the good fight.
Mr. Morrisey has cooled his jets a little and is backing up his case here and here.
In the first of the two posts linked to above, he makes the case that promises made should be promises kept. Breaking promises on important matters like the status of the President's judicial nominees is a sure fire way to send a party back into minority status. The second post deals with conversations that he has had with someone close to the process and how the dithering by the GOP leadership has led to tarnished reputations and worn out nominees and hurt families. While Mr. Morrisey is making a very powerful case for vengeful action now, I have only one major caveat with his posts. Mr. Morrisey would do well to look at the success of The Club For Growth and a line from one of the parenting books my wife and I have read and reach the same conclusion: pick your fights very carefully and win them every time. The Club's success isn't in that they went after every Connie Morrella in sight, their success was that they went after wayward Republicans who could have easily afforded to do better and by inserting their own strong candidates into open races where the GOP establishment wanted a more "congenial" candidate. Go ahead and withhold funds from the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Go ahead and support Democrat opponents of liberal GOP incumbents. Go ahead and do all of these things, but please do so in a way that does not damage those who have fought the good fight.
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