My letter to Babs

Dear Senator Boxer,

As a sometime Sacramento lobbyist who’s been invited to testify at legislative hearings by members of both parties, I’m thoroughly familiar with your history, and the fact that you sit where you do as a result of the most amazing run of dumb luck in the history of California politics. Were it not for Phil Burton’s looking out for his little brother by creating a district a dead Democrat could win, and were it not for John’s cocaine problem, and were it not for Sonny Bono’s ambitions, and were it not for Matt Fong’s stupidity, you’d be hot-tubbing in Marin instead of embarrassing the people of California with your participation in the anti-democratic filibuster of Miguel Estrada.

The sad thing about this exercise, Mrs. Boxer, is that you’re obviously driven to it by your fanatical devotion to a single issue, abortion, which just happens to be completely unimportant to Californians. Not that we don’t care about abortion law, mind you, because we do, but the plain facts are that abortion was legal in California before Roe v. Wade, and if the courts reversed Roe tomorrow, abortion would still be legal here, so your single issue has no impact whatsoever on our lives.

Your Senate career, then, is of no importance whatsoever unless and until you can develop an interest in some other issue and leave this fanaticism behind you.

The voters of this country elected a Republican majority to the Senate, and a Republican president. It is the prerogative of the Senate majority to exercise their advise and consent capacity without a shrill and unprincipled minority gumming up the works with this narcissistic filibuster. If Democrats want to have the power of the majority, they’re obligated to convince the voters that they deserve it, and they’re not entitled to seize the majority power like a bunch of anarcho-terrorists and exploit an arcane Senate rule to frustrate democracy.

As a radical feminist, you’re obviously not interested in democracy, only in exercising power and control over the lives of decent, hard-working, moral Americans, so you aren’t going to change your ways. But please refrain from embarrassing Californians by adding racism to the list of your sins.

Sincerely,

Richard Bennett
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Calling her a racist is certainly harsh, and some folks claim the Democratic filibuster isn’t about race, it’s about ideology. While it is on its face about ideology, it seems rather curious that Democrats seem to concentrate their ideological rage on conservatives of the minority persuasion, such as Clarence Thomas and Estrada. It’s not just a matter of ideology, it’s a question of punishing minorities who stray off the liberal plantation. Democrats understand that without 90% of the black vote and 70% of the Hispanic vote, their goose is cooked.