Posts filed under 'Nominations'
Jennifer Rubin has good piece on The Top Ten Ways Sarah Palin Has Shaken Up the Race:
* The Republican base is now energized and enthusiastic like never before
* Palin offers geographic appeal and help in key swing states
* Palin revived McCain’s maverick, outside the Beltway message
* Expect more attacks on Obama’s own history of accommodation with the Daley machine in Chicago
* The problem with Hillary Clinton’s disaffected voters is back
* Palin has engaged the community of families with special needs children
* Palin will keep the energy issue front and center and pound home the message that the GOP is in favor of an all-out, multi-front effort to develop domestic sources of energy including oil and natural gas
* She dealt a blow, a big blow, to the credibility of the MSM
* Palin has made Joe Biden a greater liability.
* Palin allows many voters to “make history”
These are just 10 of the increasingly numerous ways Sarah Palin has been that “game changer” Republicans sorely needed. Read the whole thing.
Tags: Joe Biden, Sarah Palin
September 8th, 2008
Last week, Harry Reid complained that President Bush was acting like a “bully” right before he decided to keep the Senate in session during the Thanksgiving break to avoid any “controversial” recess appointments. Roll Call reports that sources said “Reid made the decision after he was unable to strike a deal with White House officials that would have allowed swift consideration of several key Democratic picks for the executive branch.”
James Joyner of Outside The Beltway nailed it when he said:
One wonders why they’d do that, given how cooperative the Democrats have been in moving through Bush appointments…
Yes, it’s hard to comprehend how Reid can be serious about calling Bush a “bully” when Democrats have tried every tactic available to them to stall or block Bush’s nominations. Be it Miguel Estrada, Janice Rogers Brown, or John Bolton, Democrats have abused the filibuster to prevent or delay confirmation of highly qualified people, solely because they were conservative and nominated by Bush.
In other words, had Democrats respected the Constitution and given Bush’s nominees the up-or-down votes they were entitled to deserved, recess appointments wouldn’t be an issue.
Another interesting point by James Joyner:
Given that both parties have been in permanent campaign mode for the last fifteen years or so, the traditional checks and balances process has gone from a system to force compromise to one used to bludgeon the other side and score points. That’s led to both branches using extraordinary tools like recess appointments and filibusters on a routine basis which, in turn, ratchets the pressure up another several notches.
I would also add that this “campaign mode” has gotten worse since the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the 2000 presidential elections. Because of these two events, Democrats feel justified in abusing the filibuster, delaying funding for our troops, leaking the details of classified anti-terrorism programs, etc. etc.
Compromise won’t exist anymore because of the Democrats. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the most liberal justices on the Supreme Court, was confirmed in 1993 by a 96-3 vote. Think any nominee by a Republican or a Democrat will ever be confirmed by such a margin again? Don’t count on it. Democrats have assured that bipartisanship is near death or already dead in Washington, D.C. Harry Reid’s threat to keep the Senate in session during Thanksgiving break is merely a symptom of a disease his party is largely responsible for.
Tags: Extremism, filibuster, Harry Reid, partisanship, President Bush
November 19th, 2007
Democrats are so tough that they’re calling President Bush a “bully.”
Democrats who lead Congress likened President George W. Bush on Thursday to a bully on Iraq war policy and vowed to spend no more on combat without a deadline for bringing U.S. troops home.
“He damn sure is not entitled to having this money given to him just with a blank check,” Sen. Harry Reid, the Democrats’ Senate leader, told reporters. “Americans need someone fighting for them taking on this bully we have in the White House.”
Meanwhile as Democrats cry to their mommies about Bush being a bully, they’re denying much needed funds for our troops.
Now it is being reported that Harry Reid is keeping the Senate in session in order to prevent recess appointments. So, Reid whines about so-called “bullying” from Bush, and then pulls his own stunt, which could easily be described a bullying tactic. And Democrats blame Republicans for the partisanship that plagues Congress. If there are positions that need to be filled, but no specifics names being floated for one position or another, then there is no justification for such a move. If Harry Reid wants to set the precedent that the opposing party of the president will block every and any action he tries to make, then Democrat will one day have to lay in the bed they’ve made.
Democrats have already abused the filibuster, how else are they going disrespect the Constitution?
Tags: Christmas, defeatism, Harry Reid, Iraq Campaign, partisanship, President Bush, troop funding
November 16th, 2007
Looks like Democrats are trying to make waterboarding an issue in the nomination of Michael Mukasey for Attorney General. Democrats want him to condemn waterboarding as torture.But, waterboarding is not torture, and I have no idea why Democrats want terrorists to be coddled, not interrogated. A friend of mine who served in the U.S. Navy gave me some firsthand information about the experience of waterboarding.
I was waterboarded during SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) Training as a new Naval Aviator prior to reporting to my first squadron. The purpose of this training was to prepare naval aviators for what they may experience if captured during a time of war. This training was based on the experiences of Naval Aviators and others who had been prisoners during the Viet Nam War. Mr. Mukasey is correct in his assertion that stating what types of interrogation techniques we will or will not employ, allows the enemy to prepare for these interrogation during their training.
So, torture or not torture? He explained:
Waterboarding is hardly torture. It does not maim, cause permanent physical damage,or result in death. It merely simulates the sensation of drowning and having no control over your ability to end the encounter for very brief periods of time. Khalid Sheik Mohammed was subjected to this interrogation technique and was able to resist much longer than would have been expected from an individual who had not been trained to resist waterboarding. This is an indication that our enemies are being prepared for the possibility of being captured.
So, not only are Democrats insisting that we no longer use waterboarding as an interrogation technique with captured terrorists, they want Mukasey to spell out what kind of interrogation techniques we would use, which is useful information for terrorists in their training so they are prepared for such techniques in the event they are captured.Whose side are the Democrats on anyway? They don’t want us monitoring terrorist phone calls, they don’t want to properly interrogate them, but they do want to inform terrorists of how we listen to them and what kind of interrogation techniques they should prepare for.
Tags: Iraq Campaign, Mukasey, torture
November 9th, 2007
