I’ve been wondering who’d crow and who’d cry after Bush and Senate Dems struck a deal on judicial nominees this week. It seemed to me that the compromise was pretty good for both sides — Bush got to fill 25 slots with non-controversial judges while Dems got assurances on recess appointments.
If anything, it seemed to me the White House was getting the better end of the stick, but since Dems are in the minority, I thought it seemed like a decent deal, especially if it staves off Senate consideration of sweeping changes to the chamber’s filibuster rules, which seemed almost inevitable last week.
The last thing I expected was to see conservatives — who just got 25 new judges that wouldn’t be on the court without the deal — whine about the compromise, but that’s exactly what’s happening.
A deal among the White House, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) to move 25 judicial nominees through the Senate has outraged a group of influential conservative leaders.
Several conservative leaders said the White House and the Senate leadership committed a tactical error by compromising with Daschle, which they say has undermined what had been their strategy on judges throughout President Bush’s first term.
What could they possible have to complain about? They get 25 judges, Dems get short-term assurances about recess appointments, which in an election year, were probably unlikely anyway.
It turns out the conservatives prefer complaining to success.
White House staff who yesterday attended a closed-door meeting of conservatives sponsored by Paul Weyrich, head of the Free Congress Foundation, had to fend off barbed criticisms of the deal.
One attendee reported that Connie Mackey, vice president of government affairs at the Family Research Council, raked the White House aides over the coals.
“We don’t see the point,” said Mackey, who declined to discuss the specifics of the meeting. “The strategy all along has been to show the obstructionist tactics of the Democrats. We’ve lost that tactic.”
Boy am I glad Mackey said this. She probably doesn’t realize that her candor demonstrated one of the biggest problems with conservative politics.
They don’t care about governing. Given a choice between having 25 conservative judges serving lifetime careers on the federal bench and complaining about not having the judges, the far right strongly prefers complaining.
For all their talk about the crisis in empty judicial seats, and a process that prohibits qualified people from taking the bench, conservatives really want “tactics” they can use against Dems. Losing on the substance gives the right ammunition for campaign ads, fundraising letters, and talk radio, so they’re actually upset with a victory. Amazing.
I realize that to most of us, this was fairly obvious before, but it’s still stunning to see activists like Mackey admit it on the record.