{"id":4407,"date":"2005-06-09T09:59:06","date_gmt":"2005-06-09T13:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4407.html"},"modified":"2005-06-09T09:59:06","modified_gmt":"2005-06-09T13:59:06","slug":"so-much-for-the-gop-moderates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/so-much-for-the-gop-moderates\/","title":{"rendered":"So much for the GOP moderates"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not surprised that Janice Rogers Brown was confirmed<\/a> to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit yesterday. She was part of the Gang of 14’s “compromise” deal and, in order to defeat her nomination, opponents would have needed every Dem vote plus six<\/i> Republicans to break ranks with their party. That wasn’t going to happen, so yesterday’s vote hardly comes as a shock.<\/p>\n

It is surprising, however, that not one<\/a> Republican opposed Brown’s nomination. Linc Chafee, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Arlen Specter — the alleged centrists of the Republican Senate caucus — all considered Brown’s record and believed she deserves a lifetime position on the second highest court in the judiciary. This defies comprehension.<\/p>\n

Chafee, in particular, has shown a willingness to oppose the worst of Bush’s nominees in the past. Indeed, just last week, Chafee joined the Dems in opposing<\/a> Priscilla Owen’s nomination to the appeals bench. He believes Owen isn’t suitable for the judiciary but Brown is?<\/p>\n

I realize it’s a long-shot, but I hold out<\/a> some hope that this vote could come back next fall as a campaign issue. In 2006, Republican Sens. Santorum, Snowe, Talent, DeWine, and Chafee, among others, will face tough re-election fights, and a few of them will appeal to their respective state’s voters by emphasizing their willingness to break with their party on occasion. <\/p>\n

Yet, each of them voted for Brown, whose nomination was more a bad joke than a serious attempt to fill a judicial vacancy. Voters won’t remember this vote 16 months from now, but if Dem candidates wanted to remind them, yesterday’s vote could be a problem.<\/p>\n

I can imagine, for example, a debate in which Sheldon Whitehouse turns to Linc Chafee during a debate and asks, “Senator, you voted to put a woman on the second highest court in the nation who doesn’t believe in minimum wage laws, believes FDR was a socialist, sees herself as part of a ‘religious war<\/a>,’ insists liberal democracy ‘leads to slavery<\/a>,’ and equates Social Security with ‘cannabalism.’ Can you explain your confirmation vote to the people of Rhode Island?”<\/p>\n

The same question could be asked in Maine, Missouri, or Pennsylvania. Coming up with a persuasive answer may not be that easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not surprised that Janice Rogers Brown was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit yesterday. She was part of the Gang of 14’s “compromise” deal and, in order to defeat her nomination, opponents would have needed every Dem vote plus six Republicans to break ranks with their party. That wasn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}