Tony Perkins | December 11, 2013
Senator Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) party got a bench for Christmas — a federal one. That’s the unfortunate effect of the Left’s latest power grab, which yesterday yielded its first prize: a radical appointment to the D.C. Circuit Court. Two months ago, the nomination of Patricia Millett, an anti-Christian, anti-marriage ideologue, was a nonstarter under the chamber’s historic 60-vote threshold. That all changed before Thanksgiving when the Left steamrolled the Senate’s rules and unleashed the majority on a confirmation system that, until recently, gave both parties a say in the process. Now, in this «post-nuclear» world, the Senate that most Americans complained was moving too slowly is suddenly shifting into high gear to give the President’s picks lifetime jobs.
Yesterday, Democrats tested the new system by muscling a highly controversial judge onto a balanced bench — blowing by the GOP’s objections to tip the scales of the second most important court in the country. «They did this for one reason,» fumed Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), «to advance an agenda the American people don’t want… This vote isn’t about any one nominee. It’s not about Patricia Millett. It’s about an attitude on the Left that says the ends justify the means — whatever it takes. The American people have given us a divided government. The administration needs to accept it. They need to work with the government the people have given them, not the one they wish they had. They need to stop viewing the rules that govern the rest of us as mere suggestions to follow as they wish…»
Under this nightmarish process, Millett’s confirmation is just the beginning of the long procession of radicals to positions of power. Until last month, it would have taken 60 Senators to give Millett a crack at such an important bench. Now that a simple majority makes the decision, Senator Reid is demanding votes on more than 75 nominations — including the explosive pick of Cornelia Pillard, a judge so outside the mainstream that even members of the President’s own party objected.
After being soundly defeated this fall, Pillard’s nomination has new life in Reid’s confirmation carousel. Described by legal experts as «the most left-wing judge in the history of the Republic,» Pillard found her niche in militant feminism. A mother of two, Pillard has written papers demeaning motherhood and accused pro-lifers of turning women into «presumptive breeders.» Those ideas bleed into Pillard’s extreme pro-abortion views, which suggest that abstinence education is «unconstitutional» and ultrasound technology is somehow manipulating Americans to consider the personhood of the unborn.
Unlike other judicial activists, Pillard is honest about her objective: rewriting the law to fit her personal political agenda. And it may only be a matter of hours before Democrats give her the opportunity to do just that. Barring a Christmas miracle, the Senate is scheduled to hold a revote on Pillard sometime this week. As one senator reminded us, there’s only one cure for this kind of tyranny — and that’s an election!