ORRIN’S WAR

Dr. Strangelove (or How Orrin Hatch Learned to Stop Thinking and Blow Up the World)

By Randy Harward, 11-03-05

“Armageddon.� That’s what Senator Orrin Hatch calls the upcoming battle over President Bush’s nomination of conservative Judge Samuel Alito to replace Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court. What’s more, ol’ Orrin is threatening to pull the trigger himself by using the “constitutional� or “nuclear� option (thus enabling Alito to be confirmed by blowing his opponents out of the water).

Calling the fight to confirm Alito “Armageddon� is ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is that Hatch used this term and made this threat at the mere possibility of a filibuster.

I suspect most of us, if we knew ‘nuclear war’ was on the horizon, would do everything we could to avert it—assuming we had some way to intervene—instead of pushing the button ourselves. Alas, Orrin Hatch would rather play cowboy and ride the big bomb into oblivion. If Democrats filibuster the nomination of Alito, he sees no other option than to just blow their collective ass away. That’ll solve a lot.

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