"Extraordinary circumstances"
Not sure what this means.
Obviously, no circumstances are extraordinary enough for the majority party to accept a filibuster, so this issue isn't going away.
The big victors here are the corporate interests who didn't want their sweetheart pro-business legislation getting held up by a Senate at war with itself, even if it meant foregoing a couple of pro-business judges. Now, they get their judges and their legislation too. Congrats to them.
It seems to me the Dems cut a fairly raw deal for themselves on this one; it's going to be awfully hard to watch Brown and Owens get confirmed. Perhaps, as Josh Marshall writes, it was the best they could do to stop, even for a moment or an inch, the absolutists on the other side of the aisle and in the White House. They wanted it all, and they're not going to get it all, at least today.
But the Kabuki theater is something to behold. 14 Senators patting themselves on the back as the sage elders of the institution; Democrats declaring victory; the radical clerics condemning the compromise; Senators on both sides pretending that they'll now be considered a branch of government equal to the executive.
I'll bet Dick Cheney spit out his cornflakes in a great guffaw when he read that one this morning.
Fourteen Republican and Democratic senators broke with their party leaders last night to avert a showdown vote over judicial nominees, agreeing to votes on some of President Bush's nominees while preserving the right to filibuster others in "extraordinary circumstances."
Obviously, no circumstances are extraordinary enough for the majority party to accept a filibuster, so this issue isn't going away.
The big victors here are the corporate interests who didn't want their sweetheart pro-business legislation getting held up by a Senate at war with itself, even if it meant foregoing a couple of pro-business judges. Now, they get their judges and their legislation too. Congrats to them.
It seems to me the Dems cut a fairly raw deal for themselves on this one; it's going to be awfully hard to watch Brown and Owens get confirmed. Perhaps, as Josh Marshall writes, it was the best they could do to stop, even for a moment or an inch, the absolutists on the other side of the aisle and in the White House. They wanted it all, and they're not going to get it all, at least today.
But the Kabuki theater is something to behold. 14 Senators patting themselves on the back as the sage elders of the institution; Democrats declaring victory; the radical clerics condemning the compromise; Senators on both sides pretending that they'll now be considered a branch of government equal to the executive.
"We're going to start talking about who would be a good judge and who wouldn't," said negotiator Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). "And the White House is going to get more involved and they are going to listen to us more."
I'll bet Dick Cheney spit out his cornflakes in a great guffaw when he read that one this morning.
posted by John at 9:33 AM
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