HotShot Blog

I don't consider Bush to be a good leader. Good leaders don't insulate themselves from criticism. Good leaders acknowledge faults and mistakes. Good leaders change course when something doesn't work. Bush does none of these things.

Yet the opposing party is so inept, it's no wonder voters elected this buffoon to a second term. Case in point from the AP:

A Democrat who plans to vote against Samuel Alito sided on Sunday with a Republican colleague on the Senate Judiciary Committee in cautioning against a filibuster of the Supreme Court nominee.

"I do not see a likelihood of a filibuster," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. "This might be a man I disagree with, but it doesn't mean he shouldn't be on the court."

She said she will not vote to confirm the appeals court judge, based on his conservative record. But she acknowledged that nothing emerged during last week's hearings to justify any organized action by Democrats to stall the nomination.

Alito is no Roberts. The man has a record of opposing civil liberties, workers' rights laws, and believes the President has unlimited authority to do whatever he wants during wartime. Here is a clear case where Democrats can step up to the plate and lead the country in a progressive direction by blocking the nomination of Alito. There is little doubt that when confirmed, Alito will reverse many of the major decisions that have shaped constitutional law over the past 50 years, including Roe vs. Wade. Yet, Feinstein refuses to fight back, choosing instead to make a token symbolic gesture of voting against Alito.

Real leaders would take initiative in fighting Alito. They would swarm the media, explaining to the American public that Alito is an ideological conservative with an agenda hostile to the interests of ordinary Americans. Instead of sitting back and watching how the polls go, they would actively try to move the public against conservative extremism. And even if the public sided with the Republicans, real Democratic leaders would fight Alito because it was the right thing to do.

But we have no leaders in Washington. And so the Supreme Court will be overtaken by extremist ideologues who will reshape American society and destroy our freedoms. All the Democrats will choose to do is sigh.