Irony Doesn't Even Come Close

With something between amused pity and outright disgust (yes, it's possible), I've been watching this last minute train wreck that blogger John Kerry, who also appears to be a U.S. Senator, and fellow blogger Ted Kennedy (yet another Senator, from the same little state no less) have set in motion.

Phoning in his outrage from Davos, Kerry has the new distinction of starting the first international filibuster of a Supreme Court Justice nominee.

This is laughable. Even Reuters has all but conceded Alito will be confirmed. Whenever they end an article like this -

Sen. Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, emerged from a meeting with Alito saying he was not ready to announce how he would vote. But, he said, "I have decided that I will not participate in a filibuster."

Conrad pointed out that the American Bar Association had given Alito its highest rating, polls show most Americans support him, and that "elections have consequences."

Bush won two terms as president, promising to put conservatives on the Supreme Court. Last year he chose conservative John Roberts to be chief justice of the court.

- you know it's over. Yet here we have Kerry and Kennedy braying about the dangers of lifetime appointments and conservative agendas - from two men who's tenure in politics nearly outdistances (though in the case of Kennedy eclipses) even Sandra Day O'Connor's time on the Supreme Court.

Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1981.

That's about 25 years on the court. Yet here we have Kerry:

Term of office: January 1985 - present

And as long as he doesn't give up his Senate seat he is surely to continue to be re-elected for the foreseeable future. And then we have blustering Ted Kennedy:

Term of office: January 1963 - –Present

That's forty three years, in the Senate! That's fourteen years longer than Mary Jo Kopechne's lifetime! And don't even get me started on Robert Byrd (1959 to present!) - though ironically, his tenure and re-election have everything to do with him voting for Samuel Alito.

But seriously folks, why now? Why all this filibuster fuss? Is it for real, or is this just the beginning of pre-election madness? Most likely the latter.

John Kerry, who lost the 2004 election for president to George W. Bush, said Thursday that he does not rule out a repeat run.

And also because of this.

The DNC raised $167 million to the RNC's $238 million.

Which takes us to the small civil war taking place within the Democratic party right now. You have fringe supporters who want Democrats to go down fighting - and they contribute a lot of money to the war effort - and moderate Senators trying to avoid the partisan scourge as they try to win re-election in their conservative states. But the Democrats need money and they need energy, badly.

But their problem in getting those things is not that their party is divided, heck I think the Republican party is worse in that regard, it's because - news flash! - they still stand for nothing! Look:

Senate Democratic Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) repeatedly told colleagues this week that he wanted to avoid a filibuster, party members said. He looked frustrated in the Senate chamber yesterday as he told Frist he could not avert the parliamentary tactic. Shrugging his shoulders, Reid said he hoped "this matter will be resolved without too much more talking, but . . . everyone has the right to talk."

Party sources said Reid and others worry that a filibuster, while likely to fail, will nonetheless detract voters' attention from issues that Democratic leaders consider more promising. They include Bush's controversial domestic surveillance program, the indictments of a top White House official and a congressional leader, and the unfolding scandal centered on former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Party leaders especially worry about forcing a filibuster decision on Democrats seeking reelection this fall in GOP-leaning states, including Nelson and Kent Conrad (N.D.).

Notice anything? Every "promising" issue is some type of scandal that the Democrats and the media want to blast the President with. Not one issue listed has anything to do with a plan, let alone a direction, for the country. This is a not the mark of leadership. It's the mark of childishness and weakness. And we're seeing this on every issue, Iraq, the economy, the core War on Terror (NSA), not just with Judge Alito's confirmation. To quote John McIntyre:

Why the Democrats continue to focus their attacks on national security related issues (Iraq, wire-tapping, Gitmo, and torture) is beyond me. I suspect a big reason is the Howard Dean/Moveon.org/DailyKos influence that is becoming increasingly more mainstream in the Democratic Party. And while this influence may bring increased grass roots energy to the Democratic side, it also leads to Democratic politicians in Washington losing touch with where the average American is on these fundamental national security issues. The NSA wiretapping story that the left pounced on as some kind of Nixonian crime is likely going to turn into a complete public relations debacle for the Democrats.

And yes, that's the reason for me poking fun at Kerry and Kennedy's blogging exploits (Michelle Malkin has more here). This courting of the lefty blogosphere, while perfectly fine and dandy for stoking the coffers, is leading them farther and farther away from the mainstream of America.

Because now here we are with a mock filibuster, a political show, in addition to the previous political show at the confirmation hearings.

"Judge Alito's confirmation would be an ideological coup on the Supreme Court," Kerry said. ''We can't afford to see the court's swing vote, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, replaced with a far-right ideologue like Samuel Alito."

Kerry knows he has to slide to the left of Hillary (though recently even her Presidential viability has come into doubt) if he hopes to do well in the primaries (and for money and for the vocal fringe), but once again, such designs will doom his candidacy.

And that's a good thing.


Update: Speak of the devil...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday announced she'll join potential 2008 presidential rival John Kerry in voting to filibuster against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, just as top Democratic leaders predicted the effort is likely doomed.

Analysts said Clinton had little choice but to back the filibuster, given Kerry's Thursday announcement that he was reviving the stop-Alito movement. For all the talk of Clinton's shift to the center on abortion, she can ill-afford to let a possible adversary outflank her on the left among liberals who favor abortion rights, according to Jennifer Duffy, who monitors the Senate for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

"It's an empty gesture," Duffy said of Clinton's announcement. "What Democratic primary voter is going to vote for her if she didn't do everything to oppose Alito? ... She had to join John Kerry."

Empty gestures...I think at last we have a Democratic political platform.