If Andy McCarthy believes. . .

. . .the following, the man is quite simply delusional.

The Gang of 14 deal killed more judicial nominations than it saved. It elevated senatorial privilege over constitutional duty. It protected senators who didn't want to stand up and be counted. It took off the table in 2006 what would have been a winning issue for Republicans.

But, leave it to an attorney to convince himself that voters turn out at the polls because judicial nominees aren't being treated fairly in the Senate.

No, Andy. What cost the Republicans in 2006 was that a gaggle of latter-day Blackshorts, led by Tom "Spode" Tancredo, hijacked the entire agenda of the Republican Party for a year and a half and alienated a good percentage of Republican voters to the extent that they didn't bother to show up to vote.

It's time both McCarthy and Levin got over their little Gang of Fourteen tantrum. Nobody outside the inner circle of conservative D.C. lawyers and smattering of activists gives a damn about it at this point.

The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone. You hear them shouting "Heil, Spode!" and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: "Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?"
— P. G. Wodehouse (Bertie Wooster speaking to Spode) , in The Code of the Woosters (1938)