And This Too Shall Pass Away

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

By now all of you have heard that Governor Napolitano has accepted Barack Obama's offer to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security in his administration. The Governor promises that she will not resign her office until she has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate, probably sometime in late January 2009.

Many Democrats today are wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth in anger or fear over the prospect of Secretary of State Jan Brewer succeeding to the governorship. The lunatics will now be in charge of the asylum at the state capitol without any adult supervision over them from the governor's office. Democrats feel, quite rightly, that this is not what they signed on for when they worked to reelect Napolitano governor. She was supposed to protect Arizonans from the lunatic right.

But there is comfort and wisdom to be found in the words of Abraham Lincoln's cautionary tale:

"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!"

— The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy. P. Basler, Volume III, "Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwauke Wisconsin," September 30, 1859, pp. 481-482.

Jan Brewer and the radical Republicans will only have two years to slip loose their dogs of "culture war" and wreak havoc on Arizona before the next election. We can survive this test, we have survived before.

Our Democratic legislators will need to reacquaint themselves with the rules of parliamentary procedure and use them skillfully and judiciously. There is much one can do to derail bad legislation even when the Republican leadership violates the rules of parliamentary procedure, as they did at the close of the last legislative session.

Democrats will need to hone their skills to fight a defensive rear-guard action, this time without the aid and comfort of the so-called moderate Republicans, most of whom have been purged from the legislature by their GOP brethren and are no longer available as our allies. Democrats also can no longer rely on Janet Napolitano as their fail-safe with her veto pen at the ready. This is going to require hard work and great skill on your part. But this can be done. Many veterans of past legislative wars have been here before and have enjoyed success. Seek out their guidance and sage advice.

We will survive this winter of our discontent and emerge a stronger and more formidable opponent with the passing of winter and the coming of the spring in 2010.