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Jewish World Review April 28, 2005 / 19 Nisan, 5765 Nuke clarity By Jay D. Homnick
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Women like a man with confidence. Just look at the cautionary tale of the
singer, Tony Orlando. In 1970 he timidly suggested: "Knock three times on
the ceiling if you want me." By 1973 he was out of the building, pleading:
"Tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree if you still want me." 1974
rolled around and, to no one's surprise, he was reduced to asking: "Say, has
anybody seen my sweet Gypsy Rose?"
Republicans had best beware of a similar fate. Right now they must show
self-respect to their voters or those folks will withdraw their respect.
There is no choice: it's time for the so-called Nuclear Option, to change
the Senate rules so that a majority vote is sufficient to confirm a Federal
judge.
Dyslexics and Scrabble players will tell you just how easy is the slide
from NUCLEAR to UNCLEAR. Life is mediated by a series of elaborate rituals
of civility, and clarity in relationships between people is hard to come by.
Explosive clarity of the nuclear variety is the most precious rarity of
all. Sometimes it arrives in a moment of joy and love, perhaps alongside a
bush in the desert. More often, it is born of trauma, a national version of
electroshock therapy, such as the terror of 9/11.
Today's Senate has been maneuvered into just such a moment of certainty,
not by epiphany, not by horror, but by the breakdown of the partnership that
breeds civility. When the other side squats in the gray area and claims it
by right of conquest, the unfortunate result is that all the gray is
blackened. The rule that sixty votes are required is one that can only
work in an environment where Presidential nomination of a judge creates a
presumption of confirmation - barring revelations of awful turpitude. But
once every judgeship is turned into a debate over judicial philosophy, as
the Democrats have wrought, then the veto privilege extended to the
forty-five seat minority must be withdrawn. Once again, Scrabble shows that
a distortion of RECTITUDE breeds CERTITUDE.
When I lived in Israel, I served as an informal adviser for a charity that
helped overextended travelers by inviting them to people's houses. There
was a daily meeting point in Jerusalem and fifty or sixty people would
gather and be assigned to host families. It was a nice way to help out the
mostly college-age backpackers trying to discover Israel affordably while
creating a sense of solidarity between the locals and the pilgrims. At one
point, another organization trying to get into the act began working the
same spot. Then they approached my guy and said, "Hey, this does not look
very nice, so how about if we do alternate days?" He turned to me for
counsel.
My answer was simple: no one is entitled to enjoin you to remedy a
situation that they are fostering by their own misbehavior. That's just a
form of blackmail. Sure it doesn't look nice, but who brought that about?
Imposition, heal thyself. In the end my vision was affirmed when the other
group, the bullies-qua-philanthropists, backed off and left to seek greener
pastures.
Even today it would be far preferable if the Democrats would simply agree
to stop scorching the earth. Throw them a billion here, a billion there,
and get them to agree to conduct Senate business according to the status quo
ante Schumer. But as long as the "Geneva Convention" is not in force, as
long as it's hand-to-hand combat, anything goes, tug of war, fight to the
death, then it's time to press the nuclear button.
At the end of Samuel II (23:8), there is mention of a powerful warrior
named Adino Ha'etzni who killed eight hundred men in a single day. That
name translates into Gentle Man Of Wood, and the tradition is that he was
outstandingly gentle in scholarly circles but unyielding as an oak in
battle. Killing eight hundred people in a day certainly constitutes
"nuclear" warfare for that time. When people are civil as long as that
remains possible and are forced into combat as an absolutely last result,
they are able to marshal explosive force — NUCLEAR because it is not
UNCLEAR.
Sadly, the alternatives have been exhausted. If there is no magic POTION,
we are left with the Nuclear OPTION. If there are any Senators that need
help unscrambling the situation, then perhaps my little Scrabble lesson will
help straighten them out. In fact, it would be that much more effective if
the President gave them a phone call and told them that it's time to stop
being unclear and go. er, nuclear?
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JWR contributor Jay D. Homnick is the author of many books and essays on Jewish political and religious affairs. Comment by clicking here. © 2005, Jay D. Homnick |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
