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A Political Cyber-Column By Rich Galen
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Who Ya Gonna Call?

Rich Galen

Monday October 10, 2005


  • If there's somethin' strange in your neighborhood
        Who ya gonna call? (Ghostbusters)
        If it's somethin' weird an it won't look good
        Who ya gonna call? (Ghostbusters)

  • Maybe that's the answer to the past couple of months:
  • Iraq
  • Gasoline Prices
  • Katrina
  • Rita
  • Novak/Miller/Libby/Rove/Plame/Wilson/Fitzgerald
  • Stock Market
  • Budget Deficits
  • Airline Bankruptcies
  • DeLay
  • Miers
  • Heating Oil Prices
  • Polling Numbers
  • Bird Flu
  • New York Subway
  • South Asia Earthquake
  • Guatemala Mudslides
  • Mt. Everest
  • Boy George

  • Ok, that last refers to the former lead singer for Culture Club, George O'Dowd, not H.W., W., or P. Bush and I only include it to demonstrate my intimate knowledge of pop culture.

  • The Mt. Everest business is based upon a report this week that a group of Chinese scientists trundled on up to the top and found that the peak is "8,844.43 meters above sea level, some four meters shorter than previously measured," according to the Chinese Radio International website.

  • I don't think George W. Bush will be blamed for Boy George being caught with cocaine in his apartment, but I guarantee you that someone will suggest that global warming (caused, largely, by President Bush's insistence on using Air Force One) is responsible for the shrinking of Mt. Everest by .0018%.

  • In addition to the three plus inches rain which fell over Washington over the past few days, the continuing storm here has been the Harriet Miers nomination for the Sandra Day O'Connor slot on the US Supreme Court.

  • The general theory among my Liberal friends is this: Movement Conservatives are angry over this nomination because they wanted it to be the equivalent of the Battle of Stalingrad as a decisive turning point in the cultural war between Left and Right in the United States.

  • If President Bush had chosen an Appellate Court Judge with proven Conservative credentials - preferably someone who had been previously blocked by Senate Democrats like Priscilla R. Owen or Janice Rogers Brown - then the Republican majority could have stopped what would have almost certainly been a Democratic filibuster by changing the filibuster rule thus breaking the back of the Kennedy/Schumer/Dean/MoveOn.org wing of the Democratic Party.

  • Interestingly, Movement Liberals - led by Democratic Chairman HowWeird Dean - wanted the same thing. According to a Washington Post piece by Dan Balz and Amy Goldstein just prior to the Miers announcement:
    Pollsters have told [Democratic] party leaders that a show of opposition against Bush's next nominee could be crucial to restoring enthusiasm among the rank and file on the left.

  • Dean added, on the heals of a 22-22 split among Democrats on Judge John Roberts' nomination to be Chief Justice, that a straight party-line vote on the next nominee (who would turn out to be Harriet Miers) would not suffice:

  • Dean said a straight party-line vote would show Democratic unity but would not be sufficient to block a nominee. "That's not a fight to the death," he said. "A fight to the death is a filibuster, which is the only way we can reject an unqualified nominee�"

  • Darn that George W. Bush. He presented a nominee which suits the narrow political (and fund-raising) purposes of neither the hard Right nor the hard Left.

  • What kind of leadership is that?

  • A Dallas Morning News summary by writers Dave Levinthal and Ed Housewright of Ms. Miers' single term on the Dallas City Council indicates, in its conclusion, her continuing impact:
    Her exit from the council didn't end her participation in Dallas politics. Nor did her reputation as an often soft-spoken but deeply principled leader wane among city leaders.

  • Given what people who have actually worked with, for, and around Harriet Miers say about her, I'm sticking with my prognosis of a relatively easy confirmation vote on the Senate floor.

  • On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Many, many links to the articles referenced above, a Mullfoto of the flooding which visited North Union Street in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia on Saturday morning, and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

    --END --
    Copyright © 2005 Richard A. Galen

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