Now, imagine if Bush had said he would issue an executive order to “get around” Roe v. Wade. I imagine the left would be in full-speed frothing mode.

A lefty blogger responds:

http://kikuchiyo.blogspot.com

That’s a very charitable explanation, and gives Gephardt too much room to maneuver. A Republican would never recieve such grace, either from the left or fellow Republicans.

If it is an accurate description, I don’t see how it can be considered as granting “too much” of anything.

This lefty blogger has responded too, but perhaps not in the way you would prefer.

All these “why is the left silent on XXX?” games are pretty damn tiresome. You got something to say, say it. Don’t go wringing your hands wondering why people who don’t share your political perspective aren’t doing your work for you, or taking up your writing assignments.

The fact is, most Democrats I know think Gephardt is wishy-washy and uninspiring and have zero interest in backing him as a presidential candidate, making the whole question of what he would or wouldn’t do if he was elected rather moot.

And most Republicans don’t give a fig what Trent Lott thinks about the Dixiecrats, yet we took no end of guff for his nonsense last year. Even when we supported his removal as SML—and I expected the GOP to lose its majority in the Senate as a result but supported his removal anyway—we still took criticism and all got called racists because Lott said a racist thing. Many Dems still use Lott to bludgeon all Republicans. And you want to whine to me about how tiresome this whole Gephardt thing is? I agree it’s tiresome, but I’m just playing the game by your side’s rules.

Go ahead and bludgeon the Democrats with Gephardt’s comments, Bryan, and see if it sticks. What Lott said brought a problem endemic to many in the GOP to the surface — their pandering to a racist voter base. That’s why the story had legs. If there’s some real problem with the Democratic party secretly harboring dictatorial aspirations, you’ll probably get some mileage out of this Gephardt thing.

Note that the Republican denunciations of Lott didn’t come til AFTER his remarks became a big deal in the media. Democrats did all the heavy lifting in making an issue out of the Lott remarks. If you want to try to spin this Gephardt thing into something scandalous, that’s fine, but don’t expect any help from us in these preliminary stages.

Uh, actually a whole bunch of us GOP-leaning bloggers took our shots at Lott long before the media said anything about him. We helped develop the critical mass that got him ejected as SML. Go back and check my archives if you don’t believe me. Well, if Blogger’s archives actually worked…

Yar’s Revenge was a hip Atari game, btw. One of my favorites.

I believe you, Bryan. Of course, going through my usual round of left-wing blogs, I find several who have spoken out against Gephardt’s comments. It goes both ways.

What’s ironic is that the reason I never liked Gephardt was because he was too conservative for me.

Well, it looks like I called it correctly; at least as far as Geph’s official explanation goes. He’s not talking about overruling the Supreme Court, but acting in whatever spaces it leaves for the President to act.
But Balkin really says it best.

Gephardt’s official explanation, which we should of course take at face value without question, amounts to promising something he knows he can’t deliver. Hardly a stirring call to support him.

Well, I for one am glad that guys like Bryan and Chris are shining their lights of scrutiny on guys like Gephardt. The Dems really don’t stand much of a chance next year. Keep up the good work guys.

I never said that I supported Gephardt or that I think he expressed anything worthwhile in that gaffe; only that he was not proposing one-man dictatorship— a charge you’re still making.

I’m still making the charge, because I think that’s what he actually meant.

The issue here, I’m supposing, is that Gephardt should step down for the comments he made, and as Bryan says, he is a dictator-in-waiting who would shred the Constitution.
By that logic, can we ask for the entire Bush Admin to step down?
I’d settle for just Ashcroft.……