Nothing Left To Lose

I’m getting a lot of traffic today from Professor Bainbridge who calls me a freaking out liberal and Patterico who calls me a fringe leftist for being angry that the Dems apparently got punked (again) by the Gang of 14 compromise.

First I should point out to Patterico that when I referred to “all the executions and war crimes” in regards to Gonzales, I was talking about the unusually large number of executions he summarized in a paragraph or two for his boy to sign off on between naps, when he was Governor of Texas. The war crimes are the white house counsel advisories saying that the president didn’t have to follow the law during wartime, the abrogating of the Geneva Conventions and the fact that he agreed that “interrogation methods” that didn’t rise to “the level of pain accompanied by organ failure or death” were not torture, among other things. Just wanted to clear that up. I suspect that Mr Gonzales will be one of those guys who won’t find it very healthy to travel to countries that have war crimes laws when he gets old, if you know what I mean.

I do think both of my critics have a fair complaint about me, though. I am, in fact, a crazed fringe leftist, freaking out liberal. In fact, I am dangerous. And I was hotheaded when I wrote that post, mostly because it was all too predictable that we would get had in that deal once the Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse got confirmed — which set the bar for “extraordinary circumstances.” Professior Bainbridge sees the deal as a good one for the Republicans and indeed it was.

I’m really not all that surprised that the Gang of 14 let some extremists on the federal appeals courts. After all, Republicans actually believe that because Landslide Bush barely won an election that Clarence Thomas must, therefore, be a mainstream supreme court justice. And the “centrist” Dems figured that if they gave in on that, the right would not insist upon an extreme conservative on the Supreme Court. Now they are stuck. But that’s fine. I knew it would be so.

What Patterico fails to understand is that I want that nuclear option, I need that nuclear option. I’m fucking dying to have that fight. We so-called freaking out liberals have been pushed to the wall. We’re accused of being traitors at every turn, of wanting to give terrorists therapy, of being unamerican. People are making millions selling books saying that everything I believe in is treason. There are pick-ups all over the country that have “liberal hunting licence” bumper stickers on them. Being called a “fringe leftist” these days is actually kind of cute. How about terrorist sympathizer? Now there’s a descriptive insult with some meat on it!

I am the last person who is afraid of Bill Frist going nuclear. Like a cornered animal, I’ve got nothing to lose. In fact, it’s my fondest wish. If we could score a knock-out on Bush we might actually open some eyes in this country. And even if we don’t, so what? When you go out of your way to rub your rivals noses in the dirt,particularly when they comprise an army as big as yours, don’t be surprised when they start to see mutually assured destruction as an alternative.

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