I said it over and over again. The Democrats screwed themselves in the Senate compromise on judicial nominees. Sure, some people were celebrating the compromise as the best possible outcome under the circumstances, but now it’s probably going to come back to haunt us all. Steve of The Left Coaster brings to out attention the GOP’s intention to take any attempt to filibuster Bush’s Supreme Court nominee as a violation of the compromise.
Democrats’ hopes of blocking a staunchly conservative Supreme Court nominee on ideological grounds could be seriously undermined by the six-week-old bipartisan deal on judicial nominees, key senators said yesterday.
…The pact, signed by seven Democrats and seven Republicans, says a judicial nominee will be filibustered only under “extraordinary circumstances.” Key members of the group said yesterday that a nominee’s philosophical views cannot amount to “extraordinary circumstances” and that therefore a filibuster can be justified only on questions of personal ethics or character.
The distinction is crucial because Democrats want to force Bush to pick a centrist, not a staunch conservative as many activist groups on the political right desire. Holding only 44 of the Senate’s 100 seats, Democrats have no way to block a Republican-backed nominee without employing a filibuster, which takes 60 votes to stop.
GOP leaders, sensing the Democrats’ bind, expressed confidence yesterday that the Senate will confirm Bush’s eventual nominee, no matter how ideologically rigid. “I think there is every expectation, every reason to believe that there will be no successful filibuster,” Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Like I’ve been saying, the Dems blew it six weeks ago. WIth the compromise, the ‘Pubs had the Dems right where they wanted them. That’s why they’re so sure any nutbag the president nominates will ultimately be confirmed. I just can’t believe the Dems haven’t been smart enough to realize it now.
Still, it would be nice to see the Dems finally get off their knees and put up a fight here. Even if it’s a futile fight that they’re bound to lose if the Republicans stick together. If the ‘Pubs party discipline holds out, the Dems will ultimately be screwed (and the rest of us along with them) and they’ll have no one to blame but themselves.
