Senate Confirms Priscilla Owen -- 05/25/2005

Four years late, but better late than never, right? The vote was fifty-six to forty-three, with one Senator either abstaining or absent. Incredibly, Senators Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) were among the fifty-six who voted for her.

The article contains a lot of bloviation from the liberal side, including plenty from Harry Reid and from the NARAL gang. (They call themselves "NARAL Pro-choice America" these days, in the latest variation on the theme of selling the Brooklyn Bridge.) Blah, blah, blah. They pretend to be defeated, even though they won with that deal yesterday.

And while I'm on the subject, I don't agree with James Taranto over at OpinionJournal.com, who insists (as he said yesterday and again today) that the Republicans scored the big win on that deal. Taranto seems to think that the Democrats only wanted to save some face. I don't see that. I suggest that they still are in this game to make sure that the next Justice of the Supreme Court will be another Ruth Bader Ginsberg, they are blowing smoke when they say that they're sorry that Priscilla Owen got through today, and they're not through yet and won't be through until they suffer electoral defeat. Taranto is simply dreaming if he really thinks the Republicans won anything lasting from this. He totally ignores this key fact about that deal: that none of the Republicans who were party to that totally unauthorized negotiation are real Republicans. The ringleader is John McCain (R-AZ), about whose two failed attempts to get the Presidential nomination I really need say nothing more here. Another key player was Lincoln "Missing Link" Chafee (R-RI), who has always inspired fear that he'll jump like Jumping Jim Jeffords.

Some activists are already setting about recruiting a man to challenge Mike DeWine (R-OH) in his primary next year, and similar challenges are already pending against the Link and against Susan Collins (R-ME). Needless to say, I support all such efforts. No more should we field candidates for such offices because we think they are more winnable in a Blue State (and especially not in a Red State!). Appeasers do not win political debates or elections; genuine articles do.