Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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With Losses Like These,
Who Needs Victories

Friday, February 2, 2001

Well, there it was: 12 days and a couple of hours into the new Bush Administration it was handed its first major defeat when the U.S. Senate confirmed John Ashcroft to be Attorney-General.

The Democrats claimed a post-vote victory, notwithstanding the minor fact that the no-holds-barred, crank-up-the-fax-machines, fire-off-the-e-mails, bang-out-the-op-ed-pieces, take-to-the-cable-news-shows, threaten-each-Democratic-Senator-one-on-one campaign by every Liberal group in the solar system ended with Ashcroft being confirmed by a vote of 58-42.

Dave Espo's lead in the early afternoon AP story following the vote was on the mark:

"Former Sen. John Ashcroft won confirmation as attorney general on Thursday, completing President Bush's Cabinet and overcoming a ferocious Democratic assault on his conservative views and personal integrity. The vote was 58-42."

According to the Left, this result means President Bush must forever bend to the will of the Democrats on the matter of appointments because if he doesn't, there's gonna be some kind of big trouble, boy.

To review the bidding, the Left did not originally put the marker at keeping the vote under sixty (a goal they switched to over the past 10 days). They first put the marker at either getting Ashcroft to withdraw his name or having him go down to an ignominious defeat on the Senate floor.

Having lost on the floor - as everyone in Your Nation's Capital has known for weeks they would - the Democrats are now claiming that this proves they can filibuster any Supreme Court nominee they don't like because Ashcroft got less than the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.

Two things: First of all, they could have done that anyway. Second, they probably won't.

It would be difficult to find a nominee for the Supreme Court as conservative on every issue as John Ashcroft. So, if and when a vacancy occurs, Senate Republicans will be able to point to the DIFFERENCES between the nominee and the Attorney-General.

The real problems confront not the Bush Administration, but the Democrats in the Senate.

Newsweek's Howard Fineman, on MSNBC's Hardball noted that question he had in his mind when he looked at the line-up of Liberal interest groups who appeared at the Capitol following the vote was "Is this the Democratic Party's past? Or its future?

Democratic Senators who voted against Ashcroft to appease their base already know the lesson we have all learned, all too well - the base is NEVER appeased by something like this. The Democratic base will be a very, very demanding partner because they expended an enormous amount of political capital and, in spite of everything they threw at him, John Ashcroft will sit in the next meeting of the Bush Cabinet.

So, in one of those ironies which make watching these things so interesting, it is the Senate Democrats - not the Bush Administration - who may find themselves in the position of having to fend off continuing - and very likely increasing - demands from their Left.

Mullings is rooting for the Democrats to repeat this success on other major bills - keeping the tax cut to only $1.5 trillion, for instance. Or keeping vouchers from kicking in if a school has failed after two years instead of one. Or allowing working Americans to invest only a small percentage of their Social Security taxes in a private account.

Beat me daddy, eight to the bar.

Those six inmates who escaped from that prison in Alabama have now all been re-captured. Pity the high-tech industry which will now never have the benefit of the type technological wizardry they demonstrated in outwitting a electrified fence. They used a wooden broom handle to lift it up as they crawled under.

What they had there, was a failure to communicate - with the geniuses who run the place.

A point of personal privilege. A guy named Mike Bauer has co-authored a book on supply chain strategies in an internet environment, titled: "E-Supply Chain: Using the Internet to Revolutionize Your Business". Bauer and I worked together in our EDS days and he's really, really smart. But, a lot of people we know are really, really smart.

Bauer is one of the best people who has ever walked this earth. Period. If you need to know about this stuff, buy his book.

Scam Alert: Effective with this edition of Mullings, you have the opportunity to join the Mullings Movement by signing up for a paid subscription at a very modest price. If you don't subscribe, you'll still get Mullings as usual. But if you DO subscribe, at a minimum you can sniff, with an air of moral superiority, at that cheapskate in the next office. To read all about this new opportunity to spend a little of your money, go HERE.
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Copyright © 2001 Richard A. Galen

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