That it does, but not the attention of many who give a fig and certainly not the kind who are going to win elections.

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To most normal voters, those far-righters appear as the reverse equivalents of the equally immobile, lung-bursting leftists way off out there below the 270-degrees horizon.

So far, not a single Republican senator has been smoked out who's willing to vote against her.

Even around Halloween, these spooks aren't that scary, certainly not to this non-towel-throwing lady who didn't hesitate to wade right into such a hissy-fit pit.

If so, they ludicrously misjudge the man's character (and, yes, character does still count in politics).

The leftist "mainstream" media and their mentors camped out on the barren wastes of neo-Marxist loony land are having a ball quoting and playing up the arch-conservatives' dyspepsia.

They judge correctly that this will not help Bush pick up many votes from Democratic senators who owe their souls to the Liberals Unlimited company store. What they don't realize is that it won't advance their own football one foot closer to the Republicans' end zone.

Nonetheless, these petulant catcalls from off-stage-right are not entirely feckless. The ultra-right ideologues have accomplished – albeit inadvertently – extremely meaningful and useful things.

Assuring Confirmation

Through their welcomed self-marginalization they have cleared the way in the Senate for the certain confirmation of Harriet's nomination.

They have not split the Republican Party, which, like the Democratic Party, has historically been of at least two minds. What they have split are their own pants.

And, in that process, they have done the conservative cause more good – both substance-wise and image-wise – than anything to come along in many a year. A Republican Party perceived by the general electorate as saddled with and spurred by its farthest-right ideologues is a sure loser.

With the ultra-right now exposing itself as clearly not in command of Republicans' agenda or party, it has almost overnight transferred the Grand Old Party into a much-more inviting political home for those voters looking for one (which, incidentally, is how you win national elections in this country).

It Gets Better

Now comes the most-delicious part, the really momentous thing the deep-growling, teeth-grinding, concrete-booted conservatives have brought about.

Harriet Miers has done for the growing, common-sense-conservative majority of Americans what an earlier Republican, Abraham Lincoln, did for the slaves. Honest Abe should be smiling down.

George W. Bush is now free – free at last – to fashion a new, emerging, broader-based conservative Republican Party that can appeal more widely throughout the crucial, uncommitted ranks than the leftist-hogtied Democratic Party could ever hope to do.

All Together Now ...

As one of the recent television commercials for something or other sort of goes:

Thank you, Harriet, for all you do, Harriet! Thank you, thank you, Harriet! Harriet! Harriet!

John L. Perry, a prize-winning newspaper editor and writer who served on White House staffs of two presidents, is a regular columnist for NewsMax.com.

Read John Perry's columns here.

Editor's note:
Rush Limbaugh Says the War for the Court Has Begun! Find Out Details – Click Here Now
Find out how the Supreme Court is destroying America – Click Here

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