Carol Platt Liebau

Sunday, May 22, 2005

The author of this piece bemoans the end of the Senate "club."

As a former CBS reporter, it's to be expected that the author leans to the left -- but even so, what's notable is the events that he pinpoints as the cause for the degeneration of Senate culture: The attacks on Robert Bork, the rejection of John Tower, the unspeakable treatment of Clarence Thomas. What do all these events have in common? That's right: Republican nominees mistreated at the hands of Democrats, with nary a whimper from the pre-Fox News not-so-fair-and-balanced press. Sorry, Bill Frist going out to South Dakota to campaign against Tom Daschle this year isn't even in the same ballpark.

Of course it's to be expected that a CBS reporter would bemoan the dwindling number of "moderates" on both sides of the aisle. What's notable is that there were always more Republican than Democratic "moderates" (not surprising, since the former are lionized by the press while the latter are vilified). And so it is today. Of the Democrats, only Joe Lieberman (and now, Ben Nelson -- up for re-election in Red State Nebraska in '06) still remains . . . Republicans count McCain, Collins, Snowe, Chaffee and Spector among their "moderate" ranks.

Remind me again -- who's the party of "extremists"?

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