An open letter to Sen. Gordon Smith

Dear Sen. Smith --

I wrote to you a few days ago expressing my support for upholding the majority vote on judicial nominees in the U.S. Senate. I assumed that you had already decided not to allow Senate Democrats to use this anti-historical and untraditional means of blocking the judicial appointments of the elected chief executive.

Now the New York Times reports that you are one of a handful of Republican Senators preparing to hand to the likes of Joe Biden, Barbara Boxer and Ted Kennedy an un-Constitutional minority veto power over judicial nominees who would certainly be passed by a majority of the Senate.

Sen. Smith, I don't know if you're drifting leftward because you are aware of how Blue a state Oregon is, but doing this thing will alienate your base more than any other action you have ever taken in your career. I am a staunch conservative, and I simply will not vote for you again under any circumstances if you do this.

On the other hand, if you have any expectations about the loyalty of the Blue State Leftists to a Republican in Name Only, you need only consider the end of the career of Sen. Bob Packwood, who after nearly 30 years of unbroken loyalty to the abortion lobby was pitched out on his ear over actions that would be covered over and forgotten in a Democrat. I don't think you're guilty of Packwood's failings, but as the Bolton hearings show, a man can be blasted into oblivion for putting his hands on his hips and huffing. And everybody has huffed on occasion.

The word is getting out to the party base that this is not about the legislative veto, and Mr. Smith hasn't been in Washington in decades.

Fix the rules, please, and let the Democrats prove their principles by changing them back when they get into the majority.

Thank you for listening.