The Feld-Blog

Senator Harry Reid laid down some pretty heavy political cover-fire, but it seems the Senate Democrats are either woefully unaware or even indignant. Reid, the Democratic leader, came out publicly against confirming Roberts ostensibly establishing the ‘Democratic Position’ on confirmation. Unfortunately, however, it seems Democrats cannot line up fast enough to throw their support behind Roberts and, vis a vis, the Bush Administration.

What exactly happened here? Reid established a tone for this vote and immediately Democrats on and off the judiciary committee run away from Reid as fast as possible. Could this make Democrats look any more divided? To all Senate Democrats who just publicly cast their straws in favor of Roberts: If you have the audacity to undermine the democratic agenda, at least have the decency not to make a spectacle of it. Do you see Republicans making front-page declarations about how they intend to vote? Of course not. We are all assuming they will vote in favor, but even if some might not vote for him, they are smart enough to just cast their votes rather than make a PR debacle out of it by announcing it to the world.

None of us in the world dared to dream that Roberts wouldn’t be confirmed, nor did we have reason or really justification to. Still, at a time when this Bush is fast losing momentum, this is no time to add Democratic Senators to his already long list of conservative sycophants. If you must vote to confirm Roberts, and I respect that decision as he is extremely well qualified, just cast the vote when your name is called. Don’t split the party and bolster Bush’s already sputtering presidency. Especially, don’t hold the door open for a conservative activist judge to take O’Connor’s seat.

Democrats have now lost twice to a President who is known throughout America for his inarticulateness and lack of intelligence. He has won twice because of effective political strategy from people like Karl Rove. Now is the time for Democrats to start to come together cohesively, if not in ideology, then at least in political strategy. If we continue to commit political gaffs on this scale, we might as well hand the Republicans every Presidency, Congress, and Supreme Court for the next decade.