20060109
        Monday began the Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito as the next associate justice of the US Supreme court. This process, as proven by the abortive attempt to nominate Harriet Miers to the same post last year, promises to be contentious and politically charged.
         This contentiousness reveals a sad truth in American politics, further evidenced by the recent resignation of Tom DeLay as House majority leader, that this nation has ceased to be a one of majority rule.
         Consider the facts as they present themselves in this first week and a half of 2006. We have the minority party, defeated in both legislative and presidential elections- arguably in the majority of state elections as well-, dictating the national response to everything from the War on Terror to the selection of justices to the Supreme Court, and not by popular consent, but by nearly tyrannical use of the media and of legislative tactics that clearly let the minority rule.
         Even worse, the so-called majority party essentially stands aside and allows this state of affairs to exist and continue, in spite of the fact that a clear majority of the American people obviously believe that the Democrats and the liberal left are wrong, as evidenced by the elected Republican control of the Presidency, Senate, and House. Instead of using the mandate they have been given, they allow the minority party to control the debate, with obvious results.
         The result is that our nation does not any longer seem to have the capacity to act with resolve on any issue, from winning the War on Terror to providing relief to disaster victims, to reforming tax and tort laws that no longer meet the needs of the nation.
         As a result, Judge Samuel Alito, a strongly qualified conservative judge that seems to meet the desire of the majority of voters, will be subjected to an unnecessary carnival of persecution in the form of a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And, this carnival will be led by the ringmaster himself, Patrick Leahy, who has promised repeatedly to consider not only Judge Alito’s qualifications for the position of associate Supreme Court justice, but also his so-called ideology.
         The problem with this ideology from Leahy is that he acts as if he is the arbiter of the determination of fitting ideology for the American people, and the Senate Republicans, who are the majority on the committee, let him. As a result, Judge Alito will be subject to all kinds of questions by the Senate committee, especially once requesting him to make speculation about how he might decide theoretical cases, in spite of the fact that such questions violate the very nature of the hearings and should never be answered.
         In the end, whether Judge Alito is confirmed or not, this nation will once again be subject to the will of a minority party whose objectives are not the good of the nation, but rather the assertion of their own will and agenda upon everyone, whether everyone wants that will and agenda or not.
         The sad reality is, however, that not enough Americans know or care that such things are happening to put them to and end. Ultimately, the Democrats and the liberal left get their way because of apathy and unwillingness to act from the political leadership of the majority party to the average voter who helped put that majority in power. Until enough people care, this nation will continue to suffer the indignity it now faces with the nomination proceedings of Judge Alito.
DLH
He will get the nomination…….