Other Columns by Paul M. Weyrich
Paul M. Weyrich Bio

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I am not into spin. So I will do what I always try to do. I will tell you in a straight-forward manner. Seven Republican Senators well could be termed traitors to the cause of constitutional government. Seven Republican Senators affirmed the legitimacy of filibustering Presidential nominees to Federal Courts. Seven Republican Senators sold out their President, their Majority Leader and their country. Why? We know why NBC's favorite, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), did so. He and his longtime supporter, Senator Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC), and his buddy, Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH), could not bear to have Senate Majority Leader William H. (Bill) Frist (R-TN) regarded as a hero to the conservative movement. That is what would have happened if Senator Frist had delivered. Mind you, Senators Graham and DeWine both had pledged to support the constitutional option or what the other side calls the "nuclear option."

Senator Frist was taken by surprise when the Gang of Fourteen announced its deal the night before the scheduled cloture vote, which would have triggered the constitutional option. Frist brilliantly brought along initially reluctant Senators such as Pete Domenici (R-NM), who has been in the Senate since 1972, Ted Stevens (R-AK), a Senator since 1968, and Arlen Specter, a senator since 1980. At first when these and other "old bulls" indicated they would oppose the constitutional option the Washington wags insisted they could not be brought around. Frist didn't believe that. Frist, along with Martin B. Gold, a Washington lawyer and an expert on Senate Rules, who worked for former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, Jr. (R-TN), visited every office to brief senators on the constitutional option.

Most Senators believed some of the propaganda spread by liberals to prevent a vote to restore the 215-year Senate practice. One-by-one they quietly supported Frist's initiative. Senator John W. Warner (R-VA), long on the prerogatives of individual Senators, first elected in 1978, never committed. Frist counted Warner among the Senators who would oppose his effort. So also he counted John McCain. Graham and DeWine came out of nowhere. McCain took over the leadership of the so-called "centrists" and made the final deal, which was crafted in his office.

In the first battle over the 2008 Presidential nomination on the GOP side McCain defeated Frist. However, McCain won the battle, not the war. For one thing this issue will not be forgotten. Even political activists have a memory of approximately six months. Yet occasionally there is an issue which everyone remembers. The constitutional option is one such issue. It is why two other potential candidates for the GOP nomination, Senators George Allen (R-VA) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), denounced the deal. The deal is anathema to grassroots conservatives, the kind of folks who would be elected delegates to the 2008 nominating convention. They will not forget it. Their anger, shock and disappointment and, in many cases, desire for pay back is too great to be forgotten, regardless of the intervening events in the next three years. That John McCain will not be supported by these activists is a weak and unrealistic statement. John McCain will be actively opposed by grassroots activists who worked heartily for passage of the constitutional option.

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