John F. Kerry - The Non-President

Hugh Hewitt has the transcript of John Kerry's speech in the Senate:

"Forces outside the mainstream now seem to effortlessly push Republican leaders toward conduct that the American people really don't want in their elected leaders...,"

Effortlessly? Have you listened to talk radio lately? The Republican base is screaming for action on this while the Senate Republicans seem to be wondering about like Moses in the desert.

"...inserting the government into our private lives, injecting religion into debates about public policy where it doesn't apply. Jumping through hoops to ingratiate themselves to their party's base while step-by-step and day-by-day real problems that keep Americans up at night fall by the wayside here in Washington..."

I am pretty incensed at the stalling and obstructionist tactics of the Democrats that are holding up the business of the Senate, but I'm not losing any sleep over it.

"...We each have to ask ourselves, 'Who's going to stop it? Who's going to stand up and say "Are we really going to allow this to continue...?"

You know who could stop it? The voters! And they chose to put the Republicans in power, in both Congress and the Presidency. If you want to stop it, Senator Kerry, then win an election!

"...Are Republicans in the House going to continue spending the people's time defending Tom DeLay or they going to defend America and defend our democracy...?"

They wouldn't have to spend time defending Tom DeLay if the Democrats on the ethics committee would convene to allow an investigation to commence.

"...Will Republican senators let their silence endorse Senator Frist's appeal to religious division, or will they put principle ahead of partisanship and refuse to follow him across that line? Are we really willing to allow the Senate to fall in line with the Majority Leader when he invokes faith, faith, all of our faiths over here? Joe Lieberman's a person of faith. Harry reid's a person of faith. And they don't believe we should rewrite the rules of the United States Senate, and we certainly shouldn't allow this issue of people who believe in the Constitution somehow challenging the faith of others in our nation. Are we going to allow the Majority Leader to invoke faith to rewrite Senate rules to put substandard, extremist judges on the bench?" Is that where we are now? It is not up to us to tell any one of our colleagues what to believe as a matter of faith. I can tell you what I do believe though. When you have got tens of thousands of innocent souls perished in Darfur...,"

Yes, Darfur is a tragedy, but so far, Senator Kerry, your beloved U.N. has failed to act to do anything to stop this.

"...when 11 million children are without health insurance, when our colossal debt subjects our economic future to the whims of Asian bankers, no on can tell me that faith demands all of a sudden that you put the Senate into a position where it is going to pull itself apart over the question of a few judges. No one with those priorities has a right to use faith to intimidate anyone of us."

Just ridiculous. It is the Democrats who are pulling the Senate apart by not giving these judges an up or down vote. The voters gave the Republicans these majorities and the presidency to appoint judges.

We live in a republic, a representative democracy, which means we elect people to represent the rest of us. Just because you lose elections and don't agree with the winners, doesn't mean our democracy is crumbling. In fact, it means that our democracy is functioning exactly as planned.

John Kerry, save your blustering and hot air for a windless day on your sailboard.