Today's Cloture Vote: Alberto Gonzales

Today, Senator Reid will attempt to invoke cloture (sound familiar?) on the Democratic led effort to have a Senate "No Confidence" vote on the tenure of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

If the Republicans were smart (heh) they would vote in favor of cloture.

You read me correctly: The GOP should support the Democrat's cloture vote.

They won't, of course. With a few exceptions (such as Arlen Specter), they will vote against cloture and the issue won't be brought to the floor. The Senate will then, I assume, return to the Energy legislation that was called up after the Immigration/Amnesty bill was pulled.

It's easy to understand why the GOP will oppose the cloture vote. They will perceive it as a vote to protect the current Administration from further public embarrassment.

What they won't perceive is the opportunity that this presents.

What would happen if the Senate invoked cloture? The remainder of this week would be spent doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OF SIGNIFICANCE.

Are the American people going to be shocked to hear the Democrats in the well of the Senate bashing Bush and Gonzales for a week? No. Will they give a fig about the firing of the US Attorneys? No. Will they care if the Democrats ultimately grant Chuck Schumer's wish and pass a meaningless (in terms of substance) resolution of "no confidence"? No.

The fact is that the only person whose "confidence" Gonzales needs is President Bush's. The Senate could vote 100-0 in favor of the resolution, and it wouldn't mean jack squat except as another PR tool with which to beat a dead horse of an administration.

So why should the Pubbies vote for cloture?

A week spent on the Gonzales no confidence vote is a week not spent on reviving the Amnesty bill. It is a week, instead, in which the tolerant and caring Democratic Amnesty supporters (who have spent the last 3 weeks calling opponents of their bill racists) will be singling out for a unique form of criticism the highest ranking Hispanic in the Executive Branch. That's an interesting juxtaposition, is it not?

For opponents of the Amnesty bill, time is the most important asset. Everyday the Senate spends on trifles like the Gonzales resolution makes it harder to find the time to bring the bill back to life.

If I were the Senate Minority Leader, I'd tell my colleagues to go ahead and vote in favor of the cloture vote and, if they wanted to, to vote in favor of the Democrats resolution. Hell, for some Republicans it might be politically good to distance themselves from this dying administration on something. Why not do it on something meaningless? Who cares if the New York Times runs a story about a meaningless "bi-partisan effort" to rebuke Alberto Gonzales? I don't.

But they won't see it this way. They think they'll get more traction saying Harry "19% Approval Rating" Reid can't get anything done as another cloture vote fails.

I say they are wrong.

posted by Jack M. at 02:51 PM

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