NYT: True Test of Senate Compromise Lies Ahead

[Pirate Smile]

WASHINGTON, June 9 - With the confirmation Thursday of William H. Pryor Jr. and two other less contentious Bush administration nominees to federal appeals courts, the Senate completed the easy phase of its tenuous compromise on judicial candidates. It gets trickier from here.

Members of both parties acknowledge that the Senate is heading into the unknown now that the three candidates assured floor votes under the unusual judicial compromise - Mr. Pryor, Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla R. Owen - have gone on to the bench after years of filibusters. Two other disputed nominations remain unresolved, and others are on deck in addition to the real possibility of a Supreme Court vacancy.

"We are moving into 'here there be dragons' territory," said Eric Ueland, chief of staff to the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, referring to the uncertainties and potential dangers for both parties that lie in the unexplored Senate waters ahead.

Since the deal was first struck late last month, Democrats have hailed it as a courageous breakthrough that averted a parliamentary crisis while dealing Senate Republicans a deserved reprimand for their push against the filibuster.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/10/politics/10assess.html?

[ohtransplant]

1. The deal is bad for Dems

and won't last.

Pubs should be forced to go on the record - especially those up for election in 2006 - regarding the filibuster. Americans are squarely against the nukalur option - except the fundies pulling Frist's strings.

[DemBeans]

2. heading into the unknown...oh, goody

Notice how this "deal" guaranteed the confirmation of three almost legally-insane individuals for lifetime appointments for the Republicans, while our booty out of this deal is...well, "heading into the unknown" full of "uncertainties and potential dangers".

Is this really the best we could have done? A vague undefined promise in the face of constant threats by Frist?

[AndyTiedye]

3. Those Were The Best Surrender Terms We Could Have Negotiated

The Republicans were going to nuke our party and set up a permanent
one-party system. They had the votes. All our talk about shutting
everything down was just talk after all. We couldn't really do it --
they would simply change the rules again to prevent it.

The people oppose the nuclear option, all the polls confirm this, but
what the people want doesn't seem to matter anymore.

Our party leadership has surrendered in exchange for the face-saving
gesture of retaining the filibuster on paper (as long as we never
use it).

[ugarte]

5. Aptly put

Democrats settled for a PR victory, which is already forgotten.

[TahitiNut]

4. Quisling Dems will sell out in return for a "no competition" assurance ...

... in their next election. All the Reichbots have to do is tell 'em their opponents won't get well-funded. The Reich can then use those campaign funds elsewhere. Nothing in writing ... or even traceable, of course. :shrug: