Wednesday Open Thread

At your leisure...

Comments

[Daniel DiRito]

I thought it appropriate to offer what appears to be the current shift in GOP strategy on several fronts. From the information that seems to be slowly emerging, the R's are looking at several issues collectively with a plan to cede on one issue in order to disarm the growing swell of moderate and independent voter angst as well as empower themselves to proceed with the judicial appointee nuclear option in light of reported voter objections.

The rumblings have Rep. Hastert taking a hit on the Ethics Committee rules by restoring the previously nullified rules that were replaced by rules allowing any one opposition party member to block an investigation. This will allow the R's to appear fair minded and allow the DeLay matter to quiet and play out while at the same time the R's can ramp up the new ethics accusations surfacing against Nancy Pelosi.

At the same time, look for the R's to push the nuclear option full throttle. It is essential to satisfying their right leaning base and a fight they can ill afford to back away from at this juncture. Under the cover of the concession on the Ethics Committee issue, moderate Republican Senators who have balked at banning the filibuster can now be pressured and convinced to support the rule changes on judicial appointees. Watch for the R's to possibly push a vote on a Friday if past risk calculations prevail...maybe Mother's Day weekend?

The R's believe DeLay can survive his issues given the fact that several D's will likely face similar scrutiny. Conceding here will preserve the overriding objective to allow the President to appoint Supreme Court nominees without the risk of a Democratic filibuster...thus satisfying and maintaining the alliance with the religious right.

Ultimately, Bill Frist positions himself as the darling of the Right, the R's appear somewhat fair minded, and the "fundamental" base bolstering goal of institutionalizing conservative social values in the Supreme Court moves forward.

Given Frist's outright rejection of Reid's proposed judicial appointee compromise coupled with the heightened rhetoric from Cheney, Rove, and now Bob Dole, it appears the strategy has been finalized.

One thing is certain, Rove and the R's can strategize. They see the writing on the wall with Social Security reform floundering, Ethics Committee rule changes and DeLay drawing constant negative attention, Bolton UN nomination in trouble, bad poll numbers on the filibuster, an increasingly coherent Democratic strategy, and increased insurgency in Iraq...time to change the dynamics. I would expect the plan to unfold quickly over the next couple weeks.

The big question is whether or not the D's can see whats coming and react in any meaningful way. If they aren't careful, they will once again find themselves out maneuvered and dead in the water.

[ed]

Anyone else see the Salazar quote on KKTV in Colorado Springs last night?

Referring to Focus on the Family:
"From my point of view, they are the anti-Christ of the world".

[James C. Hess]

That's right up there with remarks from Dani Newsum of The Denver
Post: "Christians are the religious equivalent of the Taliban."

[Joey]

The saddest thing to me about this is that Dobson and Salazar should be sitting down face to face to work out their differences instead of lobbing bombs in the media. Salazar is a man of faith and I respect him a lot, even though I disagree with him on the abortion issue. I suspect they would find that they have a lot more in common than they think. What a shame.

[Phoenix Rising]

Daniel - good analysis, but if Frist had the votes to move these appointees forward, he would have called it already. This morning's debate session included a lot of back-and-forth about the "nuclear option", but still no vote. Reid put forward a pretty compromising compromise, but Frist said "no". I'd say Republicans better figure out what the Dems are doing, because the Dems have been consistently winning the PR wars lately.

The Ethics Committee rules issue is a giveaway because they already replaced the honest folk like Hefley with DeLay DePendents. At best any investigation will get a narrow majority ruling against DeLay; at worst an investigation would ignore any findings no matter how bad.

DeLay is still out by 2006, IMHO, and the longer he stays around the more his connections to politicians around the country will drag down the GOP. Beauprez, Musgrave, and Tancredo are all $20k+ beneficiaries of DeLay's PAC; they all voted to weaken the Ethics Committee rules; and Beauprez and Tancredo both supported retaining DeLay even if he was indicted, and gave $1k each to DeLay's legal defense fund. If DeLay's problems continue (and it looks like they will), the GOP will have to combat a big issue in 2006 and beyond.