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Jewish World Review May 25, 2005 / 16 Iyar, 5765 A Senate Regency By Tony Blankley
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Well, it would seem that the United States Senate has been
placed into receivership by 14 self-appointed trustees, several of whom are
amongst the Senate's most wanton exhibitionists. Some of these ladies and
gentlemen can be seen almost daily preening in front of television cameras
confessing their moral superiority over their colleagues by virtue of their
lack of firm convictions and their unwillingness to be team players.
Ironically, they have just formed the most exclusive club in the
Senate, which was, until Monday evening, itself the world's most exclusive
club. They are the charter and, presumably exclusive, members of a club
within a club.
This will be an interesting experiment in the application of
Lord Acton's ever-applicable maxim that power tends to corrupt and absolute
power corrupts absolutely. The Senate trustees might want to recall another
of Lord Acton's many pithy truths: "The danger is not that a particular
class is unfit to govern ... Every class is unfit to govern."
Let no one assume that this little assemblage of selfless
senators will limit the reach of their writ to the matter of judicial
appointments. As if one couldn't guess, on Monday night, Sen. Lindsey
Graham — the Tom Sawyer of the Senate — looking all twinkly-eyed and
mischievous into the television camera, promised that the wonderful 14 would
soon be announcing their plan to reform Social Security. Tomorrow, the
world!
So begins the Regency Period of the United States Senate. As
long as these 14 stick together, nothing can pass the Senate. Certainly they
now possess, jointly and severally, veto power over the president's judicial
appointments. Hereafter it would be imprudent of the president of the United
States to send up any nominations without first requesting permission from
Democratic Sens. Robert C. Byrd, Daniel K. Inouye, Mary Landrieu, Mark
Pryor, Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman and Ken Salazar. The president need not
check with the seven Republican senators because their only job is to keep
the Republican leadership powerless. It is exclusively the Democratic
senators who are empowered to give their imperial thumbs up or down signals.
What shall we call these 14 senators? Trustees, regents,
governing board members, blessed ones, lord protectors, proconsuls,
oligarchs, cabalists, conspirators, usurpers? For the moment, it doesn't
matter. History will give them their final designation. Certainly they see
themselves as saviors of the Senate traditions. (G-d save us from
self-appointed saviors. It always ends in tears.)
Whatever they are, they are not defenders of tradition. For
starters, they have converted the allegedly traditional authority of a
minority of 41 to block passage or confirmation into an empowered minority
of three. Any three Democratic regents may block a judicial nomination. By
organizing into a blocking mechanism — and presumably swearing blood oaths
of loyalty to one another in a secret ceremony out of sight of the
uninitiated — they have created a new "tradition."
Already they are taking on the trappings of a governing entity.
On Monday night, they didn't issue a press release — as senators and
congressmen usually do. Instead, they issued a "Memorandum of Understanding
on Judicial Nominations" on plain Senate stationery, subscribed by the 14
self-chosen ones. I assume in due time they will have their own stationery
printed up. Gold-embossed, I shouldn't wonder.
Once they go to work on Social Security reform, as Sen. Graham
promised Monday night in an audience he gave to Mr. Chris Matthews on MSNBC,
they will have expanded their power to include legislation. Their 14 en bloc
votes would be decisive. Given their policy proclivities, we can assume tax
increases but not private accounts will be included in their bill, which
will be enrolled on the mountaintop before they come down to deliver it to
their colleagues in the Senate.
The art of being them requires that they act in secret together
and present a common front. If they permit individual negotiation after they
have reached their accord, they will lose all their power.
But for the time being, they have the power — which was until
Monday afternoon in the possession of President Bush and Sen. Frist.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. Tony Blankley is editorial page editor of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
© 2005, Creators Syndicate |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
