It's My Ball, And The Game is Over!

You know it’s a slow week in news when the journalists are arguing amongst themselves about the cheekiness of interns. But that should not distract us from slightly less yawn-inducing progress of the Ship of State in its inexorable approach to the iceberg of international irrelevance.

The good senator and Viagra spokesman Bob Dole writes in today’s New York Times op-ed pages that Democrats are violating a longstanding tradition by filibustering—or threatening to filibuster—judicial nominations. The much-talked about Republican “nuclear option” would entail the majority party simply eliminating the filibuster. (For an interesting angle on why this would, in the long run, actually play into Democratic interests, read Rik Hertzberg of a few months ago.) Dole’s appreciation for the sacred precedent of history and the rights of the minority are admirable, but it’s interesting that he doesn’t really explain why Democrats would be so desperate to obstruct Republican progress.

The standard line, of course, is that Democrats just can’t deal with being the minority dissenting party, and they have not stopped trying to sabotage the Will of the People. Of course, a whiny elitist Democrat would tell you that this is the price of a majority’s tyranny. If you’re going to change the rules to ensure that you win without compromise, then we’re simply not going to play the game anymore. More to the point, the downside of Republican hubris and triumphalism is the inevitable backlash that is the normal death rattle of the ideologue in power.

On the face of it, Speaker Dennis Hastert’s offer to reconsider house ethics committee rule changes that favored the GOP looks like an olive branch offered to Democrats—who have been letting Tom DeLay rot on the vine (and to test Republican wagon-circling arrogance—yup, still there) as they refuse to hear any ethics cases. The high road is surely the road of self-interest, and Hastert probably recognizes that the GOP can’t win without first losing. (Does he really believe the compromise will help “clear” DeLay’s name? Well, we guess we may yet see new heights of hubris.) All now seem to be lining up for the clash over DeLay’s dalliances and transgressions. The only remaining question is whether the party lines will hold as everyone seems to believe they will—with no clear indication of why DeLay’s skin is worth saving.


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