Dems Prefer to Do Their Whining in Private

The Democratic "leadership" (if you can really call it that) in the Senate decided to try a little publicity stunt today by invoking Rule 21 and placing the Senate in closed session. This past week, which held such promise for the Dems, blew up in their face and now, scrambling to find something...anything that they can glom onto to make some anti-Bush noise, they've hijacked the Senate.

Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that President Bush used in the run-up to the war in Iraq and accusing Republicans of ignoring the issue.

"They have repeatedly chosen to protect the Republican administration rather than get to the bottom of what happened and why," Democratic leader Harry Reid said.

Taken by surprise, Republicans derided the move as a political stunt.

"The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership," said Majority Leader Bill Frist. "They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas," the Republican leader said.

"It means from now on, for the next year and half, I can't trust Senator Reid," the Tennessee lawmaker said.

The Libby indictment really threw the Dems for a loop. Instead of nailing Rove, Cheney and who knows who else, all they got was Libby and couple of charges related to the investigation, but nothing on the original charge of leaking the name of a CIA agent. In addition, Prosecutor Fitzgerald categorically denied that the charges had anything to do with pre-war intelligence and the validity thereof:

This indictment is not about the war. This indictment's not about the propriety of the war. And people who believe fervently in the war effort, people who oppose it, people who have mixed feelings about it should not look to this indictment for any resolution of how they feel or any vindication of how they feel....The indictment will not seek to prove that the war was justified or unjustified. This is stripped of that debate, and this is focused on a narrow transaction. And I think anyone who's concerned about the war and has feelings for or against shouldn't look to this criminal process for any answers or resolution of that.

Harry Reid apparently wasn't listening:

"The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions," Reid said before invoking Senate rules that led to the closed session.

Libby resigned from his White House post after being indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury.

I just love it when they do this stuff because all it does is make them look petty and stupid. These antics may get their liberal left base all a'twitter, but most of America will simply assume they've become completely unhinged.

And they have.

Kathryn Jean Lopez of The Corner thinks the Dems were inspired by Animal House:

Otter: No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.

Bluto: We're just the guys to do it.

Here's what the Republicans should do to combat this - schedule the Alito hearings at the end of the month with a vote in early December. We need this guy on the court by Christmas, and if the Dems want to play games, let's play.


Samuel Alito; Alito; SCOTUS; Supreme Court; Filibuster