No word yet on whether you can also indict a ham sandwhich twice. Teehee.

It was a separate Grand Jury and a separate charge. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Republican COC has to be stopped. Insomuch as this draws attention to the problem and helps correct it, the indictments are a Very Good Thing.

Man, it’s 93 degrees outside right now but it’s never felt more like Christmas.

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I cross-posted my last entry to Daily Kos. One of the responses I received was to the effect of “this is not a game; the Senate needs to advise and consent, demand documents, etc., then make a decision; and that celebrating is premature.” (paraphrased) That’s fair, I respect the opinion, and I felt I hadn’t explained myself fully enough. So, some clarification:

The Republican party realized a long time ago that politics is a game and they set about learning how to win it. That said, I in no way mean to imply that this is frivolous or not of consequence.

When planning a strategy you have to account for even the things you don’t want to hear. Otherwise, you might as well go sign up for the Bush war planning department. Here is reality: she will get confirmed. Do you honestly think there is a snowball’s chance in $@#% of any other outcome?

Another thing about strategy planning: it’s a good idea to have an endgame planned before you go in. So you can’t count on any blinding revelations to come out of the confirmation hearings. If by some miracle that does happen, there will be time enough left to filibuster or give a straight down vote with moderate Republican support.

So if we assume a) that nothing revealing will come out and b) that she will be confirmed, the question becomes: what advantage can we gain from this? What is our endgame?

Have you read any right-wing blogs today? We have a very clear opportunity here. I think this concept of blindly doing the same thing over and over again is BAD. We need to analyze the situation and gain whatever we can here. In military terms, a wedge is a great way to break the ranks of the enemy. I can see no better gain here.

Read the original post if you haven’t already.

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Harriet Miers is an unwilling gift to the Democratic party.

The Republican party, by strength of their own scandals, no longer has the political will for the nuclear option. That means Democrats could have filibustered an extremist nominee with impunity. Knowing that, Bush was stuck.

Here’s how I (hopefully) see this playing out: Democrats will call for documents (of course) and talk about having questions answered. Other than that though, they’ll sit back and let the far-right do all of the bashing. They won’t really sit back though. They’ll endorse her because it will prove to the far-right that they’re being duped. Going into the 2006 primaries, it’s a great wedge between the moderates and the zealots.

The usual obstination just isn’t worth it. It would leave the Democrats looking obstructionist but, on top of that, I think there is a good chance she’s another Souter or Kennedy. And, whether we want to admit it or not, the winner of the election does have some say, to put it mildly.

UPDATE: I just listened to Sen. Mark Pryor (D - Arkansas) talking on Hardball. He is taking a neutral stance and sounding every bit the statesman on this issue. That’s fine. He came off great. So far I haven’t seen any Democratic senator have a kneejerk response against Miers. Meanwhile the right-wing blogs haven’t let up. They’re still apoplectic over this nominee.

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I didn’t post this yesterday, but as a lifelong Redskins fan, it cannot go without comment: they are 3-o for the first time since 1991. That was also the last time they won the superbowl. I’m under no illusions here, this is only our second season with coach Gibbs back and our quarterback is 35 years old. But! Our owner finally seems to have gotten his ass out of the decision making process, we have stability and growth, and Gibbs. And did I mention that we are 3-0? Woohoo!

PS I ripped off the headline from Bozzy’s Word.

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