withdrawal symptoms

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Oct 27, 2005

Miers withdraws, and Ralph Neas is brought to bed of a bison.

Harriet Miers' withdrawal from her Supreme Court nomination demonstrates that ultraconservatives are so determined to swing the Supreme Court sharply to the right that they pounded their own president's nominee into submission, and now demand a nominee with unquestioned far-right credentials, said Ralph G. Neas, President of People For the American Way.

"It's an astonishing spectacle. The unelected power-brokers of the far right have forced the withdrawal of President Bush's own Supreme Court nominee, before a confirmation hearing has even been held. President Bush's complete capitulation to the far-right interest groups is astounding. The ultra-right wing dominance of Republican Party politics is complete, and they have dealt a terrible blow to an already weakened President and his administration," said Neas.

Unelected power-brokers of the far-right -- would that it were so! In PFAW's taxonomy, anyone to the right of Maxine Waters counts as an ultra-conservative, but even adjusting for Neas's astigmatism it would be wishful thinking on our part to judge him correct. After all, we three-toothed drooling Bible-thumpers who move our lips when we read had our blackballs plunked in the polling urn less than ten minutes after the nomination was announced. The change that broke the bid took place among the RNC yacht club crowd, and tardily.

So we're back to square one. Uncle Di's preference for the vacancy? Robert Bork.

Picture the scene. The Committee Chamber packed for the first day's hearings. America glued to C-Span. A junior staffer for Sam Brownback clumsily setting up a video projector. Finally, a tape-loop of the seizure of Elian Gonzalez with a voiceover of Ted Kennedy droning his 1987 speech: "Robert Bork's America is a land in which ... rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids," over and over and over ...

Sure, the ensuing brawl would end in defeat. But when it was finished, the blood on the chamber walls wouldn't be Bork's.