Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle lost his majority status following the 2002 mid-term election because of his party's obstruction of the creation of the Homeland Security Department. There is no question that his leadership in the opposition of the department was a mistake. He can be forgiven for this however, for everyone makes mistakes, the important thing is as one of my coaches once told me, that you "not make that same mistake again."
Unfortunately for Senator Daschle, no one shared this bit of wisdom with him. For over the next two years Senator Daschle and Senate Democrats would obstruct over ten judicial nominees from the president, never once providing any rational reasoning for their obstruction. This would go on to cost Senator Daschle once again, this time his seat in the Senate. Senator Daschle and his fellow Democrats have twice now made the mistake of simply blocking anything and everything that has President Bush's name on it, and they now seem headed down a course of making that mistake for a third time.
Daschle's successor, Harry Reid of Nevada, has recently proclaimed that all of the renominated judicial appointees originally filibustered by the Senate Democrats will meet the same fate as they did the first time. Furthermore, Senator Reid has warned his counterpart Senator Frist against using the "nuclear" option (changing Senate rules to abolish filibustering on lower-circuit judges), stating that to do so would be a "short-term victory" and that it would hurt Republicans in the long run. "We're going to be in the majority. That's the way history is. And I think that they would rue the day they did that."
With all due respect Senator Reid, you're never going to be in the majority until you cease the obstruction, so do you and your country a favor by giving every judicial nominee the up or down vote they deserve. Learn from the mistakes of your predecessor and actually come up with an agenda of your own, instead of simply blocking ours'. In short, don't make the same mistake three times in a row.
Hat Tip: Blogs For Bush
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