The devil you know...

Rush and the other knee jerk Republican propogandists often point out the moderate nature of John McCain and others like him. I cannot discern the difference between George Bush and John McCain.

In recent history, Republican presidents have not had much success getting Supreme Court appointments confirmed who actually turn out to be "strict constructionists". A thinking person would conclude one of two things. Either those Republicans didn't actually want conservative justices on the Supreme Court, or they misjudged the character of their nominees because they were not well enough known quantities.

Therefore, in order to reverse this trend, that same logical thinking person would tend to select a known conservative commodity such as Janice Brown or Michael Luttig. He has not done so, leaving only one alternative. George Bush doesn't want a conservative justice to replace Justice O'Connor. If he did, he would have nominated someone who has a clearly established track record as being such a judge instead of some unknown insider with links back to Bush's political career in Texas.

Remembering that we were told by John Roberts that lawyers make a legal case on behalf of their clients, independent of his own judgment or point of view on a particular legal issue. Thus, if Harriet Meiers holds the same belief about lawyering, we have exactly no material of any substance with which to gauge her personal philosophy or the manner in which she might decide cases.

So, the true believers are left with no alternative but the "trust Bush" mantra. What actions by George Bush make him so trustworthy?

He promised Americans tax cuts, and he delivered 3 times in his first term, although it is worth noting that the Republicans seem to be backing away from a permanent repeal of the estate tax.

He has done nothing to secure our border with Mexico. Instead, he has installed his gestapo agents in our nation's airports with the authority to interrogate and molest everyone except people who might actually be terrorists.

He has waged a war of choice in Iraq which is proving to be more unwinnable all the time as our military follows the orders of an inept bureaucracy which failed to learn the lessons of Vietnam about over management by politicians in Washington.

He has abandoned the attempts to abolish or at least dramatically overhaul our draconian Social Security system.

He has expanded the size of the federal government with such speed and efficiency that it would make even the most liberal Democrat blush with glee. Doubling the Department of Education's budget and the huge prescription drug benefit now attached to Medicare have virtually insured the continuation of our runaway federal spending for decades to come. (Or at least until our economy collapses and we sink into a depression.)

He has signed us on to CAFTA, an international agreement which will likely do to American business what NAFTA has done over the past 10 years. A few wealthy international businessmen will benefit by the lower wages they will pay to workers in Central America while the working class Americans whose parents built this country after World War 2 will suffer or find themselves without a job or a future. Americans will continue to be encouraged to overconsume as our markets are flooded with cheap goods, yet our domestic manufacturing will take a nosedive as the laws and regulations which govern American business make them unable to compete in the global marketplace.

In decades or centuries past, perhaps we could have trusted the Senate to respond to the will of the People. In this case, that would mean a tough grilling of the judicial nominee in order to at least appear to be interested in avoiding the mistakes of the President's father with Kennedy and Souter. The GOP Senators will not grill her just like they gave Roberts a pass.

In the end, I cannot point my finger at a single reason as to why I should trust either this President, or this current crop of Republican Senators. As Daniel Webster once stated, the collapse of this republic will happen when the people stop scrutinizing the politicians.