Getting Them On The Record

Dana Milbank, writing in the Washington Post, doesn't sound too thrilled with the upcoming GOP plans in the Senate:

So let's say you're the governing party and you're worried about upcoming elections because of high gas prices, low poll numbers, copious scandals, internal discord and an unpopular war. What do you do? For congressional Republicans, the answer is to start a new fight over judges. Republicans revived a years-old dispute last week over White House aide Brett M. Kavanaugh's nomination to be an appellate judge. The affable Kavanaugh will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow to explain his role in warrantless wiretapping, plus address the topic of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and other flammable subjects. Lawmakers on both sides are already using the filibuster word. It's part of an effort to stir up the party's disillusioned conservative base. Also scheduled for action this week in the Judiciary Committee: approval of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. That will be followed shortly by action on a flag-burning amendment.

I personally think the flag-burning amendment is silly (more on that below), but the issues of judges and same-sex marriage are big deals to conservatives who haven't had much to cheer for recently. If we're going to have a culture war, then let's just go ahead and get everyone on the record so there's no doubt where everyone stands. If one party or the other can't stand the attention they get from their votes, that's just too bad. I hope Frist and company bring up all of these devisive issues in the coming weeks and put some people on the spot. Let the fireworks begin.

As far as the flag-burning amendment, have you ever seen someone burn an American flag and afterward felt more inclined to support their cause? I haven't. Flag-burning is a sympton of a mind and cause that's run out of good ideas (or never had them to begin with), and creating a constitutional amendment to stop it is little more than a political stunt. It won't stop flag-burning as a protest method, and will only waste valuable time in the Congress. We don't need to watch our elected representatives rhetorically beating each other up over the flag.