Broder’s Faulty Analysis
David Broder’s column in today’s Washington Post contains three critical errors. Here they are:
Instead of a consistent and principled approach to major decision making, Bush’s efforts look like off-balance grabs for whatever policy rationales he can find. The president’s opponents are emboldened by this performance, and his fellow partisans must increasingly wonder if they can afford to march to his command.
While I agree that the Alito nomination looks like an “off-balance grab,” I certainly can’t agree that the President’s opponents are emboldened after watching Tuesday’s stunt in the U.S. Senate. That was the act of a desparate political party. Fred Barnes had it right on Brit Hume’s roundtable last night when he called it “a meltdown.”
If the mass of Democrats and a few Republicans who may be dismayed by Alito’s stands on abortion and other issues can muster the 41 votes needed to sustain a filibuster under current rules, they now have precedent for using their power.
Mr. Broder’s analysis is technically correct but irrelevant after ‘Gang of 14′ club members Mike DeWine and Lindsey Graham announced that they’d vote for the Constitutional option if Alito got filibustered. DeWine’s and Graham’s declarations actually puts Judiciary Committee Dems in a bad position because now they’re put in the position of having to make Alito look incompetent or harsh at his hearings. That isn’t a good position to be in.
At his current levels of support, he has no place else to go. But the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll contains a clear warning. Self-described conservatives made up only 31 percent of the electorate. Moderates numbered 44 percent.
Mr. Broder’s analysis is again wrong. “The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll” undersamples conservatives and creates a new ‘moderates’ category. The reality is that these figures won’t mean much by the time Christmas rolls around. By then, Iraq will have a permanent government in place, Rove will be masterminding ways to put Democrats in more bad positions and gas prices will be plunging even further.
Cross-posted at BoxerWatch