Democrats Give In on Racist Judges

Alright, that hasn't actually happened yet. But usually all it takes for the Dems to cave over this sort of issue is an article like this, followed by some administration chiding over being "obstructionist", followed by another article in the WP or the NYT decrying the lack of bipartisanship in Congress (like this one) that uses the issue as an example. The Dem's consultants will refer to their polls and focus groups that tell them the good citizenry doesn't like obstruction and partisanship, and the leadership then will dutifully give the administration whatever it wants.

The sad thing is that even if they didn't act on a single judicial nominee for the remainder of Bush's term, or rejected them all outright, no one would care. At least no one outside the wingnut base who pays attention to these things, and pissing them off is just a bonus. The Republicans seem to understand this dynamic - that people say they don't like political gridlock and partisanship, but in reality only care if it's blocking something that has broad popular support. The Republicans paid the price for this over the governmental shutdown in 1995 because people cared about the entire federal government shutting down. The lesson the Democrats took from that epsiode seems to be to roll over any time someone utters the word "obstruction". To their credit, Rove and company looked at it a little more carefully, and likely realized that regarding smaller, more arcane issues, very few people going to care about inaction even if the pundits point it out.

This would be an easy case for the Democrats to stand up, with virtually no long-term risk. I'm not holding my breath though. We'll probably see Southwick confirmed for the Court of Appeals any day now. Given that the administration has essentially told Congress to shove it regarding Gonzales and the politicization of the Justice Department, Congressional Dems should just say no to confirming any more Bush judicial nominees, which is well within their power. The pundits will raise hell at such a show of spine from the opposition, but ultimately with Bush' approval numbers at historic lows no one will pay attention. The drumbeat of bad news from the Iraq debacle makes it look like a peripheral issue anyway, which of course in comparison it is.

But this course would require some actual leadership from Congressional Democrats. Oh well.