Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Sleeping in the Bed which You Made

Things are about to get very interesting in Washington, DC.

For all of you who insisted that George W. Bush needed our votes, citing the fact that he would "appoint conservative judges," I have some less-than-surprising news.

Sen. Arlen Specter stands a very good chance of being appointed as the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and, as many conservative Republicans are frantically pointing out, this does not bode well for the pro-life movement.

As Chairman, Specter will have the ability to effectively weed out any potentially pro-life nominees before they even have a chance to surface. Would Specter do such a thing?

Apparently so, as StopSpecterNow (stopspecter.savethegop.com) points out: "Specter has made clear that he will block any judge that believes in strict construction , as he showed by stopping the Bork nomination and in recent press statements warning Bush not to nominate 'conservative' judges."

Indeed, check the papers:

Newsday

"Perhaps more importantly, yesterday the likely new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania moderate, sent a strong signal to Bush that he expected to be consulted beforehand on judicial nominations and that very conservative nominees might not be approved."

Associated Press

"'When you talk about judges who would change the right of a woman to choose, overturn Roe v. Wade, I think that is unlikely,' Specter said, referring to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. 'The president is well aware of what happened, when a bunch of his nominees were sent up, with the filibuster,' Specter added, referring to Senate Democrats' success over the past four years in blocking the confirmation of many of Bush's conservative judicial picks. '... And I would expect the president to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning.'"

Let's hope Specter doesn't make it. But if he does, ultimately the blame rests with none other than George W. himself, because, as I have pointed out several times, it was Bush who helped pro-abort Specter defeat pro-life Toomey in the senate race.

I've been watching this same scenario unfold in the Vatican for a few years now, where the pope appoints liberal cardinals and bishops, and then complains that his hands are tied, that his house is divided, that there are so many dissenting liberals in the Church.

It's odd to see Bush potentially making those same mistakes ...