04 Oct 2005 Pardon Us for Noticing

I read this essay in the American Thinker after hearing Rush Limbaugh read part of it on the air today.

When Rush read it, this section lept out at me:

There is a doom-and-gloom element on the Right which is just waiting to be betrayed, convinced that their hardy band of true believers will lose by treachery those victories to which justice entitles them. They are stuck in the decades-long tragic phase of conservative politics, when country club Republicans inevitably sold out the faith in order to gain acceptability in the Beltway media and social circuit.

I think the timing is off here.

Conservativism was NOT in its “tragic phase” when O’Connor and Kennedy were appointed. It was NOT in its “tragic phase” when Souter was appointed.

What it was in was its “making bad Supreme Court appointments” phase. True, that phase started earlier (much earlier) but most of us are not stuck in the Eisenhower era, or an earlier one.

Just how many Kennedys, O’Connors and Souters are we supposed to put up with before noticing that the presidents conservatives elect often seem to have bad judgement in making Supreme Court nominations?

It seems to me that quite a few of the folks who complain that the Right isn’t thrilled about having an unknown as a nominee are doing nothing more than complaining that we’ve noticed a trend here.

However, changing the subject somewhat, once I read Thomas Lifson’s piece, another part of it caught my eye even more:

Ms. Miers embodies the work ethic as few married people ever could.

Good grief! I was a workaholic before I got married — or so I thought. Before I got a husband and children, I didn’t even know what work was.