I Am So Smart / S-M-R-T!

Here's a little something I wrote back in January of 2008. I also mentioned it in the summer of ought-eight, but I'm far too lazy to go scouring my archives.

Let's check it out for relevence in these decidedly more modern times, shall we?

Back in 2005, President Bush was nominating federal judges just to piss of Senate Democrats. They filibustered, which Republicans certainly didn't complain about during the Clinton years. At one point, Majority Leader Bill Frist adorably thought that he could be president, so he started musing about something called "the nuclear option." The nuclear option would have changed senate rules so that filibusters would have been disallowed in considering a judicial nomination.

There was a small problem with the nuclear option; it was incredibly dumb. Once you prohibit the filibuster for one thing, you open the door to prohibiting it for everything. Sooner of later, the Democrats would have the White House and Congress again, and the filibuster would be all they have to defend their principles, such as they are.

The nuclear option was an act of slow-motion suicide, which would allow a future Democratic majority to do non-conservative things like raise taxes or, gasp, increase access to abortion. Shutting it down was the best thing McCain could have done for the conservative movement, but they're so busy writing love letters to Janice Rogers Brown that they haven't noticed.

Goddamn, but I'm smart!

Okay, maybe not. But let's pretend.