Monday, November 25, 2013

Do What It Takes, Whatever It Takes


The second aspect of this that Republicans find hard to swallow—as they should—is the Democrats' hypocrisy. Perhaps hypocrisy is too mild a word. When George W. Bush was president and Democrats were in the Senate minority, they did everything they could to sabotage his judicial appointments.
They used stalling tactics, the filibuster, and outright character assassination. Obama took great pride in appointing a Hispanic to the Supreme Court, but Bush wanted to do it first. He couldn't even get the brilliant Miguel Estrada appointed to the D.C. Court of Appeals—the same panel that Democrats have now gone nuclear over.
Comparing the quotes of Democrats then to Democrats now—and we're talking about the same people—is a case study in situational ethics. In 2005, when Republicans invoked the very same idea he has now rammed through the Senate, Harry Reid said the filibuster "serves as a check on power and preserves our limited government."
He wasn't the only one. Here's then-Sen. Obama back then: "[A] change in the Senate rules would change the character of the Senate forever. … You would have, simply, majoritarian absolute power on either side, and that's just not what the Founders intended."
And here is Sen. Chuck Schumer: "We are on the precipice of a crisis, a Constitutional crisis. The checks and balances, which have been at the core of this republic are about to be evaporated, by the nuclear option. … It is amazing, almost a temper tantrum."
The two most prophetic Democratic senators were Dianne Feinstein of California and a certain small-state senator with national ambitions named Joe Biden.
"The nuclear option, if successful, will turn the Senate into a body that could have its rules broken at any time by a majority of senators unhappy with any position taken by the minority," said Feinstein. "It begins with judicial nominations. Next will be executive appointments. And then legislation."
"I say to my friends on the Republican side," added Biden: "You may own the field right now, but you won't own it forever. And I pray God when the Democrats take back control we don't make the kind of naked power grab you are doing." 


Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/11/24/the_nuclear_option_and_the_fallout_to_come_120755.html#ixzz2laLB3H9C 


Biden it would seem never has to worry about saying something that he does not believe, since he believes whatever is necessary in that moment.


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