John Cole collects the various rightwing threats to Bush that he appoint a good little fascist theocrat to the Supreme Court vacancy made by Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement.
I'm sure they mean it, but it's also a bluff of sorts. I've seen this threat made too many times, most recently by the little brownshirts over at redstate.org who insisted that they would take their money and time and "go to the golf course" if the Republicans compromised on the filibuster.
They didn't go then, and they won't go even if Bush nominates an Earl Warren clone (he won't).
These people are Puritans: they can't not butt out of politics. Their overriding ideology is not Christian but Manichean; the central poison in their beliefs is the need to legislate their morality on others, thereby fulfilling, at least tangentally, their need to convert or condemn everyone else.
If Bush doesn't give them what they want, where will they go? The threat is hollow. Richard Viguerie started it in the late 70s, and it's popped-up periodically ever since.
They have no Pat Buchanan much less Ross Perot; they have no where else to go, no alternative candidate. And, again, they are congenitally unable to "retire" from politics. They have to be involved, and they have to be Republican.
Not that they should worry. After all, Bush is one of them. They'll get what they want, and I almost hope that they do. If they are fool enough to overturn Roe, they write their own political death certificate.
posted by RETARDO MONTALBAN @ 4:05 PM
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