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Fear of 'Getting Daschled' May End Obstruction TacticsPublished: 2005-01-07 - The 109th Congress has now convened and it did so without Tom Daschle, one of the most visible symbols of obstructionism in recent memory. Daschle, the former senator from South Dakota, has become the poster child for a number of groups that rallied together in order to defeat him. Very few people anywhere in the country thought Daschle could be defeated, yet a convergence of issues lead to his political demise and resulted in a new addition to the Washington political lexicon. "Getting Daschled" is now a real concern for many liberal members of Congress in both political parties, but especially for Democrats. Yet, because their base is so leftwing, liberal Democrats also fear getting "primaried," that is, losing to another liberal in their party's primary. Such is the political quandary that many liberals Democrats find themselves in as they prepare to address a series of issues that took down Tom Daschle. Foremost among those issues will be the handling of nominees to the federal judiciary. Perhaps no other issue exemplifies voters' frustration with liberals as much as the obstruction of so many of President Bush's judicial nominees. For conservatives, judicial activism is the vehicle most often used by the left in order to advance issues such as same-sex marriage, unrestricted abortion, and the eradication of religion from the public arena. Liberal judges have been systematically denying the American public their rights to a representative government because the courts have in effect replaced Congress and the state legislatures as the venue in which controversial issues are being debated and resolved. Whether the issues are social or moral or economic, liberal judges have taken it upon themselves to deny the will of the electorate and impose their own agenda. In just the last four years liberal judges have approved same-sex marriage even though in every state that has had a referendum on the issue, including California and Hawaii, same-sex marriage has been opposed by 60 percent or more of the voters. The vast majority of Americans oppose the gruesome and torturous procedure of partial-birth abortion, yet liberal federal judges have ruled there is a constitutional right to kill an almost born child in this way. Even though some federal judges have ruled that it is unconstitutional to place the Ten Commandments in schools and courthouses and to have "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, the vast majority of Americans disagree. This list of grievances against judicial activism includes liberal judges striking down state referendums on term limits and imposing tax increases. As this list has grown, so has the frustration of millions of voters, causing them to make the federal judiciary one of the top issues in the last election and very likely in the next several elections. And as the uproar over liberal Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter becoming Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee proves, this frustration is not just directed at Democrats, it includes liberal Republicans as well. During President Bush's first term, 10 of his nominees to the federal judiciary were obstructed by a filibuster led by Daschle and other hard-core liberals in the U.S. Senate. Among the many highly qualified nominees was former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor. In addition, several other nominees were held up under the threat of a filibuster. Following his inauguration on January 20th, it is expected that President Bush will re-nominate many of those whose nominations were held up in the last Congress, including Pryor. In addition, it is widely speculated that two members of the U.S. Supreme Court will retire this year. It is almost a certainty that ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist will retire thereby opening the door for two confirmation battles: one over Bush's nomination for a new Chief Justice and the other over his nomination to fill the vacancy on the lower Court. The new Democrat minority leader, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, has already indicated that the same obstructionists tactics employed by Daschle to block President Bush's nominees from ever getting a vote by the Senate will continue. In order to make that strategy successful he must have at least 40 members of the Senate willing to stand with him. The real test for Reid's obstructionism will come after President Bush announces his first nomination for the United States Supreme Court because voters nationwide will be paying close attention. As a consequence, Reid may find it considerably more difficult maintaining enough votes to maintain a filibuster. In order to succeed in his efforts to obstruct conservative judicial nominees, Minority Leader Reid will have to convince a large number of his colleagues that the "Daschle defeat" was an aberration. But given the fact that Daschle was once considered unbeatable, that may be a hard message to sell. In addition, when they consider that judicial obstruction was a major issue to the voters in each of the other five races in which seats formerly held by Democrats were won by conservative Republicans, the fear of "getting Daschled" could bring an end to the liberal's strategy of obstructing judicial nominees. January 7, 2005 |
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