Which is the question that I keep asking myself as I listen to the constant bleating on talk radio and as I read the center-right blogs. For a group that seemed so together just a few months ago, we sure have easily gone move-on and glorified in ripping our conservative movement to shreds. As I dropped off some mail at the post office at Wilshire Blvd. here in Santa Monica between Euclid and 12th St., there was an anti-Bush table of propaganda set up between the post boxes and the sidewalk, and one of them had a big sign with President Bush looking like Alfred E. Newman that said “In your guts, you know he’s nuts!” This last week, I’m afraid that a lot of the conservative pundits were thinking, and worse, saying the same thing.

Not being any kind of attorney, and certainly not being a graduate of an ivy-league school, no one is going to care a tiny hair off a rats u-know-what about my opinion on the Miers’ nomination, but I have found the opinion of my fellow SCBA blogger, Lowell Brown of Hedgehog Blog enlightening. And Lowell was excellent in his commentary on Hugh Hewitt’s show this afternoon as well. Here is an excerpt from his latest post:

The Harriet Miers brouhaha has exposed an attitude that is very unbecoming many of the current conservative intellectual aristocracy: Their apparent failure to recognize how lucky they are to have had a chance at an Ivy League education. This seems to have lead to an elitism that is un-American, un-conservative, un-Republican, and flatly unattractive. (Not that I feel strongly about this, of course.)
(…)
That’s part of what’s so disappointing about the Ramesh Ponnorus (Princeton), Ann Coulters (Cornell), Rich Lowrys (University of Virginia – who let him in here, anyway?), Charles Krauthammers (Harvard), David Frums (Yale and Harvard), Laura Ingrahams (Dartmouth) sorry, Laura!), and several others. Instead of reflecting the sort of humble gratitude that one might hope to see from them (or that one sees routinely from Ben Stein), this crowd seems to consider themselves fit to judge the “excellence” of those whom they find to be lesser intellectual lights. The shame of all this is that this circle of hard-core conservative elites is affiliated with the Republican Party. (These days Laura loves to say she’s a conservative first, a Republican second, but that charming attitude is a story for another very long post, someday, when I am in the mood for a lot of venting.)

Well, Lowell. You may not be Ivy League, but you can give as good as you get, that’s for damn sure! I’m disappointed and a bit disillusioned with all of the above, and then some. Ann Coulter I always expect to be strident and shrill, but her carping on the Dennis Prager show, and Dennis’ agreement, irritated me not only with her, but with Dennis — a first for me.

What is going on? Why are conservatives like Krauthammer & Kristol going apoplectic on this nomination? Could it be that our side has become as one-issued as the fever-swamp-left that we love to denigrate? Are the proponents of pro-life forgetting that the only avenue of change that will make any lasting sense is a return of strict-constructionist-thought to the federal bench? If all we want is an activist judiciary that will overturn Roe v Wade, then we are really no different than the nutters on the left.

I’m a Christian, and pro-life to boot, but I’m also an American. This is a democratic republic, and if you want to set public policy in the U.S., you need to win elections, whether it is to elect a president, senator, representative or an initiative piece of legislation. That includes issues on abortion, gay-marriage, right-to-die (or live!) and taxes. If the courts are doing their jobs, then what happens at the ballot box rules (unless the laws passed truly violate the original intent of the Constitution.)

Hugh Hewitt said it well today when he remarked that too many on the right have fallen into the same trap as those on the left, and are making the Court too important. That was enlightening to me. But there’s also something else going on, something that anyone who has ever raised a toddler knows intimately. Our esteemed brethren on the right are acting like spoiled brats, having public tantrums because they didn’t get their way. Now, Bush is a practical man, and certainly knows the old adage about spoiling the child. Makes you wonder just what kind of rod he is getting ready for these malcontents, doesn’t it? Sounds like some quality time is gonna be spent in the ol’ Whitehouse woodshed to me! (db)

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 8th, 2005 at 9:33 am and is filed under S.C.O.T.U.S.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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