Democrats Can't Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time

Alternate title: The Puklear Option

[Don’t despair, Democrats. Read on. We’ll bring it all home with a pep-talk in the last three paragraphs. Promise.]

From The Raw Story an article about the pending Alito confirmation, Democrats break silence on Alito: Filibuster unlikely, frustration high

[A] longtime aide to a senator on the Judiciary Committee said Democrats feel they simply can’t win and are looking to focus their energy elsewhere.

“I think that people kind of saw the writing on the wall, and that [opposition to Alito] doesn’t have a lot of energy. Oddly the whole hearing in the aftermath of [John] Roberts and [Harriet] Miers — everybody thought it was going to be the big enchilada because of the stakes, replacing a moderate rather than a conservative.” [Emphasis added.]

“Thought it was going to be”? Is it not? What’d I miss?

“I guess nobody anticipated the dynamic. This has kind of sputtered out, and I think the Democrats are like, ‘Look, Is this the issue that we want to dominate the news, our attempt to present ourselves to the American public.’ I think that Democrats think that if there was a filibuster, if this thing went on for a few months, in the end we wouldn’t win… [and] there are so many other things where we could take advantage of our strength relative to the Republicans here.” [Again, emphasis added.]

Nobody anticipated ‘the dynamic’ because the Democrats failed to place the proper emphasis on ‘the dynamic’ in the hearings. Your Montag sensed that ‘the dynamic’ was ‘sputtering out’ when I heard the palpable lack of vigor in the examination of the Judge’s dissents.

Yes. It’s the ages-old story of Democrats Can’t Get it Done in Supreme Court Nomination Hearings. We saw the same thing in the Robert’s hearings, when the milquetoasts were forced— by their own ineffectiveness —to cut and run; supposedly to save their ammunition for the then upcoming debate over Justice O’Connor’s seat.

Well that debate has come and it seems there is a new twist on that ages-old story. It seems it is actually a tale of Democrats Can’t Get it Done in Supreme Court Nomination Hearings No Matter How Significant a Constitutional Crisis May Result.

If they are not going to fight now, then when? Today a New York Times editorial entitled, “Senators in Need of a Spine,” in its infinite wisdom, points out:

It is hard to imagine a moment when it would be more appropriate for senators to fight for a principle. Even a losing battle would draw the public’s attention to the import of this nomination.

Look. It seems to Your Montag that The People are ready and eager to get behind somebody. Especially if that somebody won’t continue fucking up everything in sight, including the very structure of our democracy. Dang, the group that’s running the show now is like the King Midas of shit. But all this stuff going on, you can fight against wrapped in the flag and reading from the Constitution. It’s a no-brainer!

Fuck. Snarl this motherfucker up for a while! Filibuster (walk) and go to town on the NSA data mining and wiretapping issue (chew gum.) Meanwhile, the party can work the Clusterfuck of Corruption in the House.

The sun ain’t gonna just shine on you, Democrats, so you’re gonna have to make hay any way you can. With body blows to the stomachs of the pigs that ate all the hay in the first place, for instance. Make ’em puke . . . Puke ’em . . . It’s the Puklear Option! (See what I did there? . . . I slay me.)