judgement day is coming... but not the one you think, Mr. Bush.

from SFGate

While Bush has said he views his Nov. 2 election victory as a mandate for his policies, his decision to renominate the 20 candidates drew a rebuke from Ralph Neas, president of the liberal lobbying group People for the American Way.

"His plan to renominate extremist nominees shows absolutely no recognition that a deeply divided nation deserves bipartisan consultation over these powerful, lifetime appointments to the federal bench. Instead of extending an olive branch, the president chose to brandish a partisan club," Neas said in a statement.

This divisive, self-serving administration is asking for trouble on the floor of the Senate. Sen. Frist has said he would consider changing the rules of the Senate to allow filibusters to be overturned with a simple majority, thus denying the minority its last resort against extremist, partisan appointments (and any other legislation or vote on which it cannot hope to have any voice). Once this legislative "safety net" is removed (something the now-majority Republicans would never have dreamed of doing when they were not in the majority), minority opinions will have even less voice in the Senate than they do now - which ain't much.

A change of the filibuster rules, like the recent exception made for Rep. DeLay, will be privately unpopular with those Republicans who have the brains to realize that the pendulum will swing back eventually and these power grabs will hasten that day... once it arrives, they will have to live by the short-sighted, grasping, undemocratic rules they themselves spent all their "political capital" on.

This aptly illustrates the modus operandi of the current sore winners in the Legislature: If you can't get what you want fair and square, change the rules in your favor and steal it. Hey, after all, we're Republicans... we're the victims...we're ENTITLED to win. Our "mandate" entitles us to spend our "political capital". Well, all I can say is I hope I get to watch when their capital dries up and they are "perp-walked" to the political poorhouse. Maybe they can share a cell with Silvio Berlusconi - the undisputed king of the legislative rule change.

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