Billmon: “Defining Mr. Roberts”

Billmon has it right once more on Robert’s SCOTUS nomination (and many other issues, am sure).

His prose is always excellent, here he relies on The Godfather to illustrate the point, Think Like Michael:

The Dems don’t want to be like Fredo — weak, insecure and eager to earn the good will of people who are inevitably going to be enemies of “the family.” (That’s where too many of them are at now.)

They shouldn’t be like Sonny — impulsive, emotional and a few quarts short of a full crankcase. Shrub is like that and it’s usually what gets him into trouble. (“Bring ‘em on!”)The Dems need to try to be more like Michael — cool, analytical and totally pragmatic. “It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.”

And here’s the heart of the matter, on this and on every issue:

Sometimes [the Michael mindset] means offering to talk peace, while secretly preparing to wack the guy. Sometimes it means just plain talking peace.

But it has nothing to do with fairness or open-mindedness or listening to opposing points of view. It has to do with what’s best for the “family” — which in this case we can define broadly as those groups and constituencies in American society who oppose the GOP machine and want to see it destroyed (or at least kicked out of power.)

The Michael mindset should apply to the Roberts nomination as it does to everything else. Reasonable people can differ over what that means in practice: fight a lot, fight a little, just get it over with. But it just seems essential to me that everyone understands that this is (to paraphrase Horowitz) war by other means — not a civics lesson.

(Emphasis added.)

I agree… far too often the Liberal/Progressive “rational and fair” approach disarms us just as we’re about to engage in a brawl. Again, as Billmon has so eloquently stated during the course of the day, let’s not concede before getting into the ring.

If you haven’t already, read Billmon’s “Defining Mr. Roberts.”