Ugh
I admit that this whole Alito thing has me out of sorts, so maybe on an ordinary day this wouldn't bother me, at least not enough to blog about. But today, it does. Over at Pandagon, which has long been one of my favorite blogs, Pam Spaulding gives a very detailed account of the closed Senate session about the Iraq war that Senator Harry Reid triggered. I'm very glad he did this, and I'm glad Pam wrote about it, but this sentence in her posting troubled me greatly: "This is a revolt, a showing of spine like we've not seen before, along with the brass balls that we thought were auctioned off." Shortly thereafter she adds: "Harry Reid kicks ass."
Here is Harry Reid's record on abortion. It's not pretty. It's not women friendly. It helps illustrate why I am so despondent about the Alito nomination. Iraq is a terrible situation, but I see my energies in the future substantially diverted to trying to hold on to abortion rights, rather than stopping a horrific war, and I have people like Harry Reid to thank for this. Pam can talk admiringly about his "brass balls" all she wants, but I have never been more disgusted with the Democratic party than I am today. I had so much anger toward Ralph Nader after the 2000 election that I almost went into therapy over it, but today I see his point, though through a different lense: When it comes to meaningful pursuit of equality for women, there is not a dime's bit of difference between male Democrats and male Republicans. Women are on our own.