Via the NYT: Justice Choice Could Rekindle Filibuster Fight in the Senate.
BTW–I haven’t had time or energy to fully blog the deal from this week, but will no doubt do so tomorrow or Friday. While I have had limited news-consumption time over the last several days (it has been a great trip) I remain of the opinion that this was a good deal for the moment, that those on the right who insisted on the nuclear option no matter what are wrong (I was in support, but only in the face of major obstruction), and that this is likely only one chapter in a much longer story. However, by avoiding both a wall of filibusters by the Democrats and a radical response by the Republicans, the Senate has managed to return to where it needed to be: one that recognizes the rights of both the majority and the minority.
I insisted early on that despite my agreement that the nuclear option was the right thing to do in the face of continued obstruction, that the Senate as a body had the right to maintain the filibuster as a rule for these nominees if it so chose. It has so chosen (yes, the choosing came about as the result of a relatively small slice of the chamber, but that means that the ability of the right sized voting blocs to form on either side of the issue cannot be assembled (i.e., no 60 for the Democrats to block cloture, no 51 for the Republican to invoke the nuclear option). As such, the body has decided–that is the way legislative bodies often function: as much by an absence of the needed votes as by the ability to assembly said voted).
The Democrat’s tactics vis-a-vis Appeals Court nominees of late has been a clear deviation from past practices and outcomes in a situation in which the same party controlled both the Senate and the White House, and as such, it was not surprising that the Republican threatened a substantial response. However, in the face of a compromise, in which Bush’s key nominees are confirmed, is a win for the Republicans. Further, the Democrat’s ability to maintain the filibuster rule for judicial nominees, and to block some of the lesser nominees in this batch, is a win for them. It was a compromise–everybody got something, nobody won everything and the hardcore supporters of both sides have some reasons to be mad.
Welcome to democracy.
(Ok, so you got some of my thoughts anyway–my wife isn’t ready to leave yet…)