Keep O'Connor on

I have been thinking about this all morning.  Now I am ready to spell it out:

The best thing for the President, the Republican Party, the conservative movement, and the Supreme Court is for Sandra Day O'Connor to postpone her retirement until after the 2006 elections.

That's right.  Keep her around and forget about finding a replacement until late next year.

Why?

Because this is our chance to finally flush some of the garbage out of the U.S. Senate.

Many conservative Republicans are dismayed because we have 55 seats in the Senate, yet we are unable to get the Senate to push through our agenda.  The problem is that while the Party has 55 seats, the conservative movement does not.  Thank John McCain (M-Media) for exposing the problem.

The "gang of 7" or the "seven dwarfs" have taken our 55 seat majority and turned it into a 48 seat plurality, with the majority coalition more often than not leaning democRat.

But the problem doesn't stop there.  We have two more liberal "RINO" Republicans mucking things up.  Chuck Hagel (L-NE) and judiciary chair Arlen Specter (L-PA) aren't helping anything.  This is especially true when you look at Specter and judicial nominations.

So now our 55 seat majority looks like 46 seats.

There is one more wildcard in the mix.  Trent Lott (B-Miss, the "b" is for "bitter") has a personal vendetta against Bush and majority leader Frist over the loss of his leadership position.  Even though Lott is a traditional conservative, he tends to backstab the President whenever he can.  Thus, he can no longer be counted on in a close vote.

So we really have 45 seats.  Thus, we need at least 5 big changes in order to break a tie and get conservative wins on a consistent basis.  And considering that conservative Rick Santorum (R-PA) is in trouble, we may need 6 or more.

In comes the 2006 elections...

If O'Connor stays put and takes nominations off the table for at least another year, then judicial nominations can become THE issue for the 2006 Senate races.  Right now, the conservative base is pumped up.  If we turn that energy into a massive campaign to overhaul the Senate, we can purge a lot of our dead weight.

Lincoln Chafee (M-RI) is up for re-election in 2006.  One of the most liberal "Republicans," Chafee is part of the gang of 7 dwarfs.  He can't be counted on to support the President with a conservative judicial nomination, or any other important matter.  Get him out of there.  Even if we nominate a weak replacement who loses the seat to a democRat, it is still a victory: we don't lose any votes (since he never votes with us anyway), and at least his successor will be a known democRat instead of a stealth one.

Ditto for Olympia Snowe (M-Maine).

Another dwarf, Mike DeWine (M-OH) is up for re-election in 2006.  Ohio is a good Republican state.  It came through for Bush, despite being one of the two most highly targeted states by the left.  And yet, they give us two loser RINO Senators.  At least Voinivich has been on board with judicial nominations (but went wobbly on John Bolton!).  But Voinivich isn't up for re-election in 2006, while DeWine is.  Toss him out in the primary.  He can't be trusted as a Republican.

Bill Nelson (D-FL) is up for re-election in 2006.  As of now, it looks like he will be facing right-wing darling Katherine Harris.  She is down in the polls, but only because some elements of the GOP have withheld their support, fearing that if Harris is the nominee, it will stir up the ghosts of 2000.  Well, memo to the GOP: 2004 was our validation of 2000.  Bush won Florida in 2004, and it wasn't even that close.  Surely, if Florida was a problem because of 2000, Bush would have lost his re-election bid there and we'd have President Kerry choosing SCOTUS nominations that Nelson would support.  And don't overlook 2002: the left wanted to make Jeb's re-election bid a referendum on 2000.  Jeb won in a landslide.  Stop fearing 2000.  Rally around Katherine Harris and get her this big win.

Minnesota used to be a democRat stronghold.  But it has been trending to the right.  We saw Minnesota replace the late Paul Wellstone, one of the most liberal Senators in history, with the dependable Norm Coleman.  Now the time has come to solidify the state.  Another of the most liberal Senators, Mark Dayton (so liberal, he supported Dennis Kucinich's idea for a "Department of Peace" to replace the Department of Defense), is retiring after only one term.  We can pick up this seat.  It could be a HUGE win.

Massachusetts has had some of the most liberal and entrenched democRat Senators for years.  Between John F'ing Kerry and Ted "the swimmer" Kennedy, the Massachusetts Senate delegation has stymied more conservative legislation than probably any other pair of Senators.  But Massachusetts is ripe for change, and they have the man to do it.  Mitt Romney is a popular, conservative, Republican Governor.  He almost beat Ted Kennedy in a 1994 Senate race, when he was a political unknown.  Now he is a sitting Governor.  Meanwhile, Ted has just grown more grotesque.  Romney can beat Kennedy.  We must all encourage him to do this.

How many Klansmen are there in the Senate?  As far as I can tell, the only one is Robert Byrd (D-WV).  He is up for re-election.  He is also so old he is senile.  He is a dinosaur.  If re-elected, he will surpass Strom Thurmond as the longest serving Senator.  Did I mention that he was a high-ranking officer in the Ku Klux Klan?  West Virginia used to be a democRat stronghold back in the days of labor union power.  But now, more than ever, West Virginia is ready for change.  Get that racist bastard out of office and let him finish his days in the old folks home, where he can tell stories about the colored folks to anyone who cares.

Speaking of which, John Corzine (D-NJ) might be in trouble.  He is currently running for Governor of New Jersey.  If he wins, the current Governor can name his replacement in the Senate.  But if he loses, he has to face Senate re-election in 2006.  Either way, it makes 2006 promising for a pick-up: an appointee with only a year in is about as weak an incumbent as you can get, and a candidate who just failed to win one statewide election would have serious problems winning another so soon.  What does this have to do with Byrd?  Well, the rumor is that Corzine just might have been caught on tape making disparaging remarks against blacks.  That could ruin his bid for Governor, and his chances of re-election to the Senate.  We'll just have to see if the alleged tape exists.

Vermont could even go our way!  Incumbent Communist Jim Jeffords is retiring.  Who is running to fill his seat?  Communist Bernie Sanders!  Right now, the state democRat party just might endorse him instead of running a candidate.  But all it would take is one courageous democRat to run, and the liberal vote would be split, handing the seat to a Republican.

Let's not overlook the most important candidate in 2006: Hillary Clinton!  Dick Morris and I agree that the best thing for her to do if she wants to be President is not seek re-election to the Senate!  This could allow someone like Pirro to waltz right in.  Granted, Pirro would probably be fairly liberal and might align herself with other Northeast liberals like Chafee and Snowe.  But at least she wouldn't be a guaranteed vote against the conservative agenda like Hillary!

Finally, the old thorn-in-the-ass Trent Lott is up for re-election.  We have no hope of seeing him voted out, or losing a contested primary.  But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.  An upstart young Republican could challenge him in the primary, and force him to commit to working with the President.

Now, if O'Connor decides to put off her retirement until this session of the Supreme Court comes to an end, allowing Bush to hold off on another nominee until the peak of the next election cycle, then conservatives can make judicial nominations into THE issue for all these Senate races.  We probably won't win them all.  We might not even win any.  But if we make it THE issue, then some of the wobbly RINOs might be forced to buck up and play ball.

Then, we could finally see Bush nominating someone who will force the democRats to filibuster, allowing us to invoke the constitutional nuclear option.

Comments

[Geoffrey Davis]

Wishful thinking. It is disapointing that Trent Lott would hold such a grudge toward Bush but I still think that over something important as a SC nomination he would be on board. Really dont think that JRB would be affirmed? She would be pretty reliable

[Gullyborg]

in the summer of 1994, people told Newt Gingrich his predictions of a Republican landslide takeover of both houses of Congress was wishful thinking. If we had been more aggressive in putting up a good candidate instead of just handing the nomination to Bob Dole (or if Bob had done his Viagra commercial before the campaign), Clinton would have been a one-termer and the rest of the discussion would be moot.

Big things are coming. It's time for change. I'm listening to how people--normal everyday people, not political junkies like me--are talking. It's like the 1960's all over again, but going the other direction. People are fed up with the system, fed up with the status quo, and fed up with the same old same old in politics. We are ripe for real change. The first party to pick up on this and get it into their platform wins everything in the next election. I just hope the GOP gets the memo first.

[Tony]

The risk is, we could lose the Senate, and then we have NO chance of getting a decent conservative.

I think he has to strike now, get the person in there, and maybe Kennedy will retire next year and we can have a Senate race based on judges. Too risky otherwise.

[Jay G]

Kennedy ain't retiring. The only thing that'll get his fetid carcass out of the Senate is a myocardial infarction...

[Gullyborg]

I think he meant Justice Kennedy might retire, thus opening yet another seat for Bush to fill. If Justice Kennedy retired at the end of the session next summer, it could have a major impact on Senate elections.

But I think we have the same odds of Justice Kennedy retiring as Senator Kennedy retiring. This is all the more true now that, assuming Bush names a real conservative, Kennedy will be the only swing vote and will have all the power on the court.

[Gullyborg]

> The risk is, we could lose the Senate

No, you miss the point: we don't have the Senate! We can't lose what we don't have!

If people like Chafee are routed out in the primaries and the seats fall to democRats, there is no change. The worst risk is that we get below 50 "nominal" Republicans and lose the committees. But A) odds are against that outcome and B) even if we lost the committees, it wouldn't mean much since 41 democRats acting together (sometimes more, and often with a few RINOs in tow) have been able to stop every conservative agenda anyway.

We have very little to risk, but everything to gain.

[biggovgop]

In my opinion, Bush can get a conservative in if he wants to. The current talk is Alioto or Luttig. Who knows? My prediction is Alioto would sail through as he is not on the Democrats' "warning list".

In any case, I think the RINO is in the WH, not the Senate. He's the one who wants the spending, new programs, renewal of the Assault Weapons bill, etc. Getting a few more conservative Senators won't change him.