Welcome New Liberals!

According to my new fighting buddy, T F Stern Rush Limbaugh did not read my exchange of letters with John Podhoretz yesterday , and proceeded to read John's column approvingly to his radio audience.

Apparently, David Brooks didn't read it either (can you imagine).

Brooks did Podhoretz one better. Podhoretz defined the opposition as those who did not believe in the miracle of life (no, John, but we've discussed that already).

Brooks says:

"You end up exactly where many liberals ended up this week, trying to shift arguments away from morality and on to process."

One of the commentators to this post, RBS is worried that this whole Schiavo thing is a prelude to the "nuclear option" fight over the filibuster and the judiciary. I think that any Republican who thought that something as important as Terri Schiavo could be controlled to act in the service of a stupid rule about "filibusters" didn't have their finger up to the wind. (Maybe their thumb was up their someplace else.)

But maybe RBS is right.

What sort of judges are we Democrats worried about? Are we worried about Judge Pryor, a judge so far to the right that the Democrats filibustered him, and President Bush had to make him a special "recess" appointment to the 11th Circuit?

The same Judge Pryor, who, when the Schiavo case came in front of the 11th Circuit this week, was NOT among the dissenting judges. Who AGREED THAT THE STATE COURTS IN FLORIDA had litigated the case thoroughly and no Federal issues were involved.

And by the way, had Judge Pryor chosen to dissent he would have had company. 3 judges dissented. At least one of them (I think 2, but I know 1) was a CLINTON appointee.

Now suddenly, Judge Pryor, who apparently was worried about the rule of law, about the process, is a liberal. Thanks David Brooks. Thanks Judge Pryor. Welcome, aboard!

Glenn Reynolds a/k/a Instapundit wrote in his blog yesterday that

"I'm quite astonished to hear people who call themselves conservatives arguing, in effect, that Congress and the federal courts have a free-ranging charter to correct any injustice, anywhere, regardless of the Constitution. And yet my email runneth over with just those kinds of comments. And arguing that "it's okay because liberals do it too" doesn't undercut my point that conservatives are acting like liberals here. It makes it."

He goes on to say:

"But I do think that process, and the Constitution, matter. Trampling the Constitution in an earnest desire to do good in high-profile cases has been a hallmark of a certain sort of liberalism, and it's the sort of thing that I thought conservatives eschewed. If I were in charge of making the decision, I might well put the tube back and turn Terri Schiavo over to her family. But I'm not, and the Florida courts are, and they seem to have done a conscientious job. Maybe they came to the right decision, and maybe they didn't. But respecting their role in the system, and not rushing to overturn all the rules because we don't like the outcome, seems to me to be part of being a member of civilized society rather than a mob. As I say, I thought conservatives knew this."

Nope, sorry Glenn, according to David Brooks, anyone who thinks the way you do is a LIBERAL. Welcome aboard Glenn, and while my readership is still growing, according to The Truth Laid Bear you already have the number 3 blogsite in the country. Lots of newly-liberal readers.

Welcome also to Justice Rehnquist, Thomas and Scalia. Welcome especially to Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the memorandum opinion refusing to hear the Terri Schiavo case on cert.

I didn't think that all of the these people were liberals. And I am thrilled that the Republican Party is attempting to call these people "liberals," and to drum them out of their party. They're all welcome to my party.

Hope I have enough chips and dip.