Reading the Senate through Star Wars

It has happened! The Dark side in the senate has won. Darth Owen has been confirmed by the Senate. I can only quote that great writer George Lucas:

"So, this is how liberty dies... with applause."

Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen won Senate confirmation as a federal appeals judge Wednesday after a ferocious four-year battle, a personal triumph that also marked a victory for President Bush in his drive to install conservatives on the nation's highest courts.

And more to the point:

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

The 55-43 vote was largely along party lines, and made the 50-year-old jurist the first of Bush's long-blocked nominees to win approval under a newly minted agreement by Senate centrists meant to end years of partisan gridlock.

Following his assumption of power, Lord MustkeeppushingbecauseReligiousRightisWatching (played by Bill Frist) whispered sweet nothing to the fanatics and corpratists that make up the Republican base:

We cannot stop with this single step," Majority Leader Bill Frist said in a written statement soon after the vote. The Tennessee Republican resurrected a threat to strip Democrats of their right to filibuster Bush's picks for the nation's highest courts if they violate the 2-day-old accord.

"We must give fair up-or-down votes to other previously blocked nominees," he said. "It is the only way to close this miserable and unprecedented chapter in Senate history."

And what was the response of the fighting Jedi leaders in whom the fate of this country's court system was trusted? Obi Wan Waffler (Harry Reid) had this to say:

Democratic leader Harry Reid said he was "ready to put all this behind us and move on."

"I would hope the president would move on," he added later at a news conference in which Democratic leaders urged renewed attention to the economy, health care, defense and other issues.

In a statement the newly crowned emperor said that he was pleased, noting that:

"I urge the Senate to build on this progress and provide my judicial nominees the up or down votes they deserve."

And a great darkness fell upon the land.