Based on Friday's
words from Senator Dick Durbin, it seems that quite a few Democratic Senators are hopping mad and want to "press the red button" by filibustering Judge Sam Alito, even though that might trigger the Nuclear Option from the Republicans. Our own mcjoan has
gone over why the Dems should call for an Alito filibuster in any case, even if they don't have the 41 votes to sustain it, even if the Repubs decide that 41 is no longer good enough and they will require 51.
But then what? What happens after the Senate goes nuclear? The MSM tell us that the Nuclear Option will make the filibuster "disappear forever" in a puff of logic and then things will otherwise be the same as before. This is absurd, in my view. Life might seem to go on as before, but nothing will ever be the same again. Historians will treat it as a tipping point. Maybe voters in November will, too.
As Mark Kleiman
has explained, the Nuclear Option is treason: it involves having Dick Cheney, in his
official capacity as Vice President, stand before the US Senate and
lie about what our Constitution says, in order to achieve a petty political gain. Kleiman:
"He will be blatantly violating his oath of office, as will every Senator who votes to sustain his action."
So what kind of government will we have then?
- The president is a crook. George W. Bush has admitted to violating FISA on numerous occasions and says he intends to continue doing so. His "Article II" defense is specious—the president's war powers do not include the power to suspend the Bill of Rights! Unlike habeus corpus, the Fourth Amendment does not have an "except in time of war" clause. No one is above the law: not Nixon, not even Lincoln, certainly not W.
- The vice president is a traitor. For now, Cheney's involvement in the Valerie Plame affair is unproven (it would be treason under the Espionage Act of 1918). But after the Nuclear Option, his perfidy will be on record in the annals of the Senate.
- Half the senators are traitors. Again, the Nuclear Option would require every Senator who goes along with it to pretend he doesn't realize that he is shredding our "goddamned piece of paper", the American compact between citizen and government, that he swore to uphold.
- 90% of Congresscritters are traitors. I have ranted previously about US law 109-13, which grants dictatorial powers to Secretary Michael Chertoff. The House version, H.R. 1268, was even worse:
``(c) WAIVER.--
``(1) IN GENERAL.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.
``(2) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court, administrative agency, or other entity shall have jurisdiction--
``(A) to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or
``(B) to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.''.
With this bill, Congress abdicated in favor of a dictatorship (see Ermächtigungsgesetz). They were willing to grant Chertoff the authority to waive any and all laws, including presumably any laws they might pass in the future that attempt to limit his powers. No court is permitted to review his actions. No one at all can say "no" to him except his boss, George Bush der Überführer. Never mind that this law is unconstitutional (Congress cannot delegate its law-making authority to the Executive branch). Never mind that it is using a cannonball (dictatorial powers) to kill a fly (environmental regulations prohibiting a wall along the Mexican border). This law is just plain unAmerican—we do not have a "notwithstanding clause" in this country!
So, what should Senate Democrats do with themselves in a post-Nuclear America? In my view, their best course of action is to take their toys out of the sandbox and
GO HOME. If a reporter stops by while a Senator is cleaning out his desk and asks what is going on, the Dem should say (with a tear in his eye if he can manage it) that the government of Jefferson and Madison is dead. (Ben Franklin can also be mentioned, but avoid referring to John Adams). The job for which he was elected no longer exists, so he's getting on a plane and going back to his constituents.
Yes, I know that it is difficult to walk away from the pomp and privilege of the Senate, but I think it will turn out to have been necessary. Any senator who actually cares about the country that our grandchildren will inherit needs to save himself so he can later save others. Eventually, when W. faces a tribunal for his crimes (yeah, Milošević didn't think that day would ever come, either), anyone who was still part of his administration
at the end would be ineligible to lead the new government, to be tasked with putting the shattered pieces of our Humpty Dumpty republic back together again.
By leaving after the Nuclear Option, the senators will be preserving their ability to participate in the new America. If they stay, they merely perpetuate a veneer of legitimacy for a government that has already rotted out into monarchy. (Does Bush have to leave in 2008? Only the Constitution says so, and he apparently doesn't consider himself bound by that document.)
What should the Senators do at home? Modern communications will allow them to do pretty much whatever they could have done in Washington. They can declare the Bush government illegitimate and state that they will
not return except to vote for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Perhaps they can make some noises about setting up a constitutional convention, but really that would be pointless until it is clearly established in American history that an administration that spits on the Constitution will not stand.
It's a waiting game. You can't outshout the Bushites, so just shut up and leave them in a room by themselves. Eventually they'll turn on each other.