The Punch and Judy Show Democrats

Like Vaudeville, their time has passed.

Well, the big news this week was the Alito hearings in which impotent and intellectually bankrupt bullies, otherwise known as Democrats, did their best to shoot down Sam Alito in the vain hope that they could somehow prevent him from sitting on the Supreme Court. Their performance was yet more proof that the once-great party of FDR and JFK is today no more than the court jester of modern politics. Democratic Senators pranced and preened, putting on their best Punch and Judy show, but to no avail. Their greatest achievement was to make Mrs. Alito flee sobbing from the hearing room. Their best argument could be summed up in the question, "Have you stopped being a bigot yet?" Not exactly the kind of hearings one might have hoped for if one were serious about constitutional issues.

And this is really the heart of the matter. For the Democrats long ago lost any interest in the pursuit of great ideas. And ultimately the highest court in the land is, in large part, a philosophical enterprise. The constitution is a philosophical document which deals with the proper role of government in society and the individual's relation to both. It is impossible to discuss the role of the court without also addressing the fundamental ideas of the founders and the constitution they wrote, and how it shapes the nation in which we live.

What are individual rights? What is the proper scope of government? How do we delegate authority to the state and for what purpose? What is the proper balance between the individual and the group and how is it pertinent to national security? What are rights during wartime and are they different that those in peacetime and to what extent, if any?

These are the kinds of questions that intelligent Senators might have asked if they had some wits at their command. Sadly the Democrats had none. They focused instead on a little known political group at Princeton, Vanguard Mutual Funds and the claim that Mr. Alito is a racist and a bigot. In the end, all their arguments collapsed like a wet cardboard stage set.

So here we bring you a round up of the stories from the most recent week of what could have been, and should have been matter for great oratory and deep philisophical discussion, but instead became the tired and well worn Democratic stand up comedy with which we are so familiar. And like an old joke used too many times, it no longer works as it once did. The unresponsive audience flags down a waitress before the next act.

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