"The story is this: Pat Leahy got snookered by Arlen Specter, into delaying the
vote on Southwick so that the GOP leadership could work on Dianne Feinstein by
playing to her ego. And Leahy fell for it — even though he had the votes to shut
down the Southwick vote altogether back in July. Why didn’t the SJC simply vote
then, knowing that they could stop the Southwick nomination entirely? No clue.
Really…no freaking clue. Here’s how the behind-the-scenes blather goes: Specter
coaxed Leahy into a delay, a sort of gentleman’s agreement not to vote, and then
the GOP started whining publicly about the delay they, themselves, had asked
for…all the while using said delay to kiss up to Feinstein. Word is that both
Trent Lott and Mitch McConnell played to Di’s sense of “fairness and integrity,”
and that Lott did so by asking DiFi to give Southwick a second look see
interview. When she did so, Southwick came in and turned on the Southern
charming man wattage, and won her over with his “nice guy” persona, hideous
judicial record be damned."
Right or wrong this sounds like the nature of any political system, that it takes deals and sometimes it takes a little arm twisting and trickery to get something through. It is being condemned in this case, but if it were a case that benefited the Democrats I think the tune would be sung differently.
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