Partial Birth Republican
November 3. 2005
Former Senator John Danforth is another country club Republican duffer.
Danforth, a grandson to the founder of, and an heir to the fortune of, Ralston Purina has all the credentials. A Princeton undergrad with Yale graduate degrees in both divinity and law, Danforth has been: a Missouri Attorney General; a U.S. Senator; the head of Janet Reno’s investigation into the FBI's role in the Waco, Texas/Branch Davidian disaster of 1993; a special envoy to Sudan and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
Danforth has benefited from, and eagerly accepted, the support and votes of Conservatives for his entire career. Recently, Danforth has become the liberal’s RINO poster child in their efforts to dissemble the Bush administration and the Republican Party.
But it’s not Bush or the Republicans that the liberals, and their little quisling, Danforth, are really gunning for. The Conservatives are the real trophy in their bull’s-eye. This is a battle for culture. And, as we all know, Conservatism represents nothing other than crazed Christian evangelicals and their nutty fundamentalist ideas. Or so the liberals and Danforth would like you to believe.
As Danforth condemns, “The problem is not with people or churches that are politically active. It is with a party that has gone so far in adopting a sectarian agenda that it has become the political extension of a religious movement.” Just whose taffy is he pulling? Since when is a political Party not a compilation of its supporters beliefs? Or is it a game of “Thank you for your efforts, votes and money...now go to hell”?
Perhaps Danforth could reclaim his sanity if he spoke about the Democratic Party adopting the agenda of crazed wackos like the National Education Association or the aliens from Howard Dean’s mother ship. Anyone who thinks that the NEA’s dogma isn’t as intrusive as Islamic Fundamentalism is just not paying attention. And yet, Phyllis Schlafly reports that, “The National Education Association maintains one of the five largest federal Political Action Committees, called NEA-PAC, and it is the third largest donor to Democrats.” Are you getting it Mr. Danforth?
Checking the 2004 Republican Platform, I found these major areas of Party concern: (1) Winning the War on Terror; (2) Ushering in an Ownership Era; (3) Building an Innovative, Globally Competitive Economy; (4) Strengthening Our Communities and (5) Protecting Our Families. Really “far out” stuff.
As Patrick Hynes observed in an American Spectator article, “...the Republican Party isn't identified with one particular sectarian position...the Republican Party is a conservative party and the conservative strains of most Christian sects (which also happen to be the growing strains) have abandoned minor sectarian differences and coalesced around shared positions on key cultural issues.”
Catch this irony...at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Danforth posited that, “...the Republican Party fairly recently has been taken over by the Christian conservatives, by the Christian right.” He failed to mention the influence of Jewish Conservatives, Catholic Conservatives, fiscal Conservatives, social Conservatives, Neo-Conservatives and just plain ordinary folk believing in God and Country. It’s pogrom time for the Christian Right.
Did anybody ever stop to think that Conservatism is just a code-word for commonsense? I know that this flies in the face of liberals who can’t utter a thought without repeating prepared dogma, but Conservatives usually think through their beliefs and logic leads to the door of commonsense. Or, did Mother Nature become a member of the Christian Right by making it impossible for the animal kingdom to anally conceive?
The catalyst for Danforth’s recent comments was the withdrawn Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers. In a continuation of his recent mantra, Danforth is certain that, “Far-right conservatives scuttled Miers' nomination....” Setting aside whatever “far-right” means, Conservatives of various persuasions both opposed and supported the Miers’ nomination. Miers was not what a plurality of the Party wanted, nor was it what they were promised.
In 2004, President Bush promised to “...put competent judges on the bench, people who will strictly interpret the Constitution”. Miers lacked the legal track record to afford a plurality of the Republican base a comfort level that she was the product that was promised. It’s that simple.
When the New York Times runs a headline story that the “Next Nominee May Well Spark a Climactic Battle” it is either because they can’t count or that they, and the liberals, rely on “Republican” Senators like Danforth.
The last time I counted there were 55 Republican, 44 Democratic and 1 Independent U.S. Senators. To this, you can add the Republican Vice President’s tie-breaking vote. In the absence of Senators like Danforth, I see no problem in a simple majority to confirm President Bush’s current nominee, Judge Samuel Alito. Since the math is good, the NYT’s must be counting on the Senatorial Danforths.
Well my good fellow, just what do you mean by “Senatorial Danforths”?
As I have previously written, just because someone is a Republican is no guarantee that they are a Conservative. To this I add...just because someone is a Republican, there is no guarantee that they are a REPUBLICAN! Just look at Independent Senator Jeffords, formerly known as “Republican” Senator Jeffords. That man wasn’t even a RINO...he’s barely normal.
And speaking of Jeffords, that seems to be the company that our confused former Republican Senator Danforth likes to keep. In 1994 Senator Helms proposed an amendment to the Goals 2000 education reform legislation that would “prohibit the use of funds to any state or local educational agency which has a policy of denying prayer in public schools by individuals on a voluntary basis,” Danforth voted against it. His company of Nays included Senators Boxer (D-A), Bryan (D-NV), Chafee (R-RI), Feingold (D-WI), Feinstein (D-CA), Glenn (D-OH), Harkin (D-IA), Hatfield (R-OR), Inouye (D-HI), Jeffords (R-VT), Kassebaum (R-KS), Leahy (D-VT), Levin (D-MI), Metzenbaum (D-OH), Moynihan (D-NY), Murray (D-WA), Pell (D-RI), Riegle (D-MI), Simon (D-IL), Specter (R-PA) and Wellstone (D-MN).
Danforth broke with Republican ranks to vote against this amendment because he, “worried that the amendment might become a license for Satanists, sects, and cults to say prayers in school.” Perhaps it is the imaginary fear of these bogeymen that has frightened any fabric of Conservatism out of this Republican In Name Only. The only license for cultists is the ability, and willingness, for Partial Birth Republicans to be put in office by Conservatives and then slap them in the face.
Since Danforth seems so warm to the liberal mantra, let’s give him a quid pro quo...” Senator, you're no Judge Samuel Alito”.
RightPage