Check out Tony Blankley, editor of The Washington Times editorial page, view on the "Gang of 14." As always, Mr. Blankley provides a great wit and wisdom in this column. I especially like this part of his piece:
What shall we call these 14 senators? Trustees, Regents, Governing Board Members, Blessed Ones, Lord Protectors, Proconsuls, Oligarchs, Cabalists, Conspirators, Usurpers? For the moment it doesn't matter. History will give them their final designation. Certainly they see themselves as saviors of the Senate traditions. (God save us from self-appointed saviors. It always ends in tears.)Go Tony, keep up the good work.
Whatever they are, they are not defenders of tradition. For starters, they have converted the allegedly traditional authority of a minority of 41 to block passage or confirmation into an empowered minority of three. Any three Democratic Regents may block a judicial nomination. By organizing into a blocking mechanism — and presumably swearing blood oaths of loyalty to each other in a secret ceremony out of sight of the uninitiated — they have created a new "tradition." Already they are taking on the trappings of a governing entity. On Monday night they didn't issue a press release — as senators and congressmen usually do. Instead they issued a "Memorandum of Understanding on Judicial Nominations" on plain Senate stationery, subscribed by the 14 self-chosen ones. I assume in due time they will have their own stationery printed up. Gold-embossed I shouldn't wonder.
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