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May 23, 2005

COMPROMISE REACHED! REPUBLICANS SCREWED!

Posted in: General,Politics

Welcome Everyone, from the lefties at Kos and Crooks and Liars, to the Righties from Michelle Malkin, the Political Teen, and many others. Look around, Democrats get annoyed, Republicans laugh, but everyone enjoy! You are all welcome to come back anytime you like.

Todays Senate

Charlie and lucy

Guess who is Lucy, and who is Charlie Brown. Okay, Charlie Brown is McCain and the Moderates.

Got the image here, go visit the Genius that was Charles Shultz here. Click image for full sized copy.

 

Is the Senate Going all night

Cots were brought into the Capitol Monday as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist scheduled an all-night session stretching into Tuesday to dramatize the debate over President Bush’s judicial nominees and the filibusters that Democrats have used to block votes on 10 of them.

BREAKING FOX SAYS COMPROMISE REACHED

Drudge Report:

“We’ve got a deal,” Nebraska Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson told reporters. Senators plan to announce details at a news conference shortly…

CNN:

BREAKING NEWS A bipartisan group of senators has reached a deal to avert a showdown over President Bush’s judicial nominees, congressional sources tell CNN. Details soon.

More from CNN.

McCain is up saying absolutely nothing, they essentially are saying that they have an agreement, but they are giving out no information. Looks like a they have promised to play nice in the sand box and share each other’s toys. What absolute BS, a therapy session when it is time for politics.

UPDATE 7:46 Pledged to vote for cloture for Janice Rogers Brown, Owen and Myers. Personal, the Democrats are owning the press conference and are looking like the cat who ate the canary. Myers and Saad. No commitment.

Michelle Malkin is liveblogging also.

Fox News has the story up.

Red is reporting this is a White House Victory. Who is outside the mainstream, the White House now has a precedent for the 3 judges that were allowed.

Sen. DeWine: The Senators have agreed that they will not filibuster except in extraordinary circumstances. (Tom, can we trust the democrats with a definition? See “is”.

Red: This will be defined by Democrats in the future as a GWB Supreme Court nominee. This will be revisited in the future. All these gutless moderates did was delay the inevitable Great Irony.

HARRY REID commercial blasting the Republicans after the press conference on Fox News.

ABC News AP Report

Yahoos take.

Washington Post

Buzz Blog screams SELL OUTS, I do not disagree.

Ace Of Spades is saying that the “Bipartisan” Group Caves To Liberals

Political Teen has the video up!!!!

NRO’s Ramesh Ponnuru:

This may have been a choice by 14 senators for comity, but its unintended consequence will be to raise the stakes on the next Supreme Court confirmation–which will decide what rules the Senate is really going to follow. A decision has been delayed, not made. Here’s what the Democrats commit to in the future: “Nominees should only be filibustered under extraordinary circumstances, and each signatory must use his or her own discretion and judgment in determining whether such circumstances exist.” Here’s what the Republicans commit to: “In light of the spirit and continuing commitments made in this agreement, we commit to oppose the rules changes in the 109th Congress. . .” So: Democrats can filibuster nominees in “extraordinary circumstances,” to be determined according to the “discretion and judgment” of Ralph Neas–I mean, of each individual senator. Republicans, on the other hand, are not getting any wiggle room to vote for a rules change in “extraordinary circumstances”–such as the Democrats’ abuse of their wiggle room. It looks as though the majority party got taken in this deal.

Captains Quarters

Take: So far, no one really has the agreement, but from what I’ve seen on television up to now, the GOP only got votes for 3 nominees and the Democrats still get to keep the judicial filibuster “under extraordinary circumstances.” This is the exact scenario that I foresaw when I heard that the centrists were gathering in the smoke-filled room. They coughed up the Constitution and got guaranteed votes on less than half of their nominees

Mark At Decision 08 says

A HUGE Win For Republicans Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen, William Pryor to receive up and down vote; the Democrats pledge not to filibuster future Appeals or Supreme Court Nominees except in ‘extreme circumstances’. Can’t wait to see the reaction from the Kossacks!…

Another Rovian Conspiracy chimes in

Well, a minority of the minority have agreed to do their duty on 3 appointees to the Appeals Courts and shirk their responsibility on the other 2. In an even greater display of the cojones of this bunch, Bobby Byrd (D-KKK) and Mark Warner (R-VA) want to set up a panel to make recommendations to the President on who they would like him to appoint. Where in the words “advise and consent” do Warner and the Grand Kleagle see the words “appoint for the President.” you want to talk about a Consitutional crisis – we haven’t avoided one… we’ve just stepped into one. The Senators have said they wouldn’t filibuster in the future unless it was for “extraordinary” reasons… Well, why do I have the feeling that any appointee not cleared by the Warner/Byrd panel will be considered “extraordinary” and justify a filibuster. Thanks, Johnny!!!

John over at Powerline pulls no punches:

What a hideous deal! The Democrats have agreed to cloture on only three nominees, and they have made no commitment not to filibuster in the future, if there are “extraordinary circumstances.” Of course, the Dems think any nominee who is a Republican is “extraordinary.” The Dems have just wriggled off the hook on some of the nominees that, politically, some of them did not want to be seen voting against.

From the other side of the Aisle we have Kos saying

Some of the judges will get their up and down vote, at least two others will not. Frist doesn’t look to happy on the Senate floor. Reid seemed happy. Thing is, we don’t know that we had the votes. We had 49. We needed two more. Did we have them? Now, some wanted to roll the dice, but had we lost, Dobson would’ve chosen the next Supreme Court justice. I wasn’t willing to make that bet, and I’m glad we didn’t have to. On top of everything, Frist looks weak. He’s failed his crazies. He’s finished. Things may change, but so far, this is the second-best option. Beating Frist on the procedural vote may’ve been the best option. But the worst option was too horrible to contemplate.

Outside The Beltway:

Hopefully, this issue can stay away for a while. I was among the very many Americans who could have cared less about the bickering. And, like Steve, I found both sides to be hypocritical. It was power politics, not principle, all the way through, and it frankly had me turned off most of the way.

The Anchoress:

It’s gonna be a long cold day before the GNP sees a dime of my money. A long. Cold. Day. Can someone please explain to me why, with 57% support from the nation (under-reported, of course), the GOP caved on this? You’ll just want to go to bench memos and scroll down and bring up the pdf files and just sit there in stunned amazement at the utter uselessness and lack of cujones of the GOP leadership, the fecklessness of the Democrats, and the promise of nothing but more obstruction, more double-dirt and more partisan politicking to come. This is freaking disgraceful. As usual, the GOP gave up, and the Democrats give up NOTHING. Here’s the agreement. It will make you sick.

The Moderate Voice gives perspective:

So the White House has added an extra layer of second-thoughts to wavering GOPers who don’t want to see the Senate discard even lip service to a tradition that had always put that body a cut above teh more partisan, politically extreme House. And moderates — who sometimes come from states that lean Democratic — will also have to ponder polls. (NOTE: This has just been updated due to WaPo poll). An earlier poll suggested most Americans aren’t paying too much attention to the issue, but if they were they weren’t for the nuclear option.

Conservative outpost nails it! GOP grabs the ankles

Yep, you guessed it…in a stunning display of Republicans-in-the-majority “business as usual” the GOP has managed to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. Led by the usual suspects in the “moderate” crowd, a deal was struck between 7 Dems and 7 Republicans to allow full senate votes on 3 out of 5 of the current crop of circuit court nominees. The lucky three appear to be Owen, Brown and Pryor. Note these are the same the Dems have been tagging as “the most radical” that Bush had submitted. The problem here is that we have another deal where we get less than we would have/could have gotten, simply by voting like a majority and in the process have to rely on Dem goodwill when it comes to future nominees…especially a Supreme Court nominee. Does anyone really think that, should Bush nominate someone like a Clarence Thomas or Scalia to the high court that this same group of Dems wouldn’t be part of another filibuster effort?? Give me a break. The best case scenario is that we will be right back where we started.

Crooks and Liars from the other side has video on Frist whining in the Senate. Libs are starting to Crow, another Kos post

It’s not a good day to be Bill Frist. He looks weak, unable to control his own caucus. His winger friends go ballistic. They get some judges, sure, but ultimately, we can filibuster Bush’s next Supreme Court nominee unless he picks a moderate. The Dobson power grab may have failed a day early.

MSNBC reports , but is holding back to check with Newsweek to see how to spin this so it hurts the white house the most.

PoliPundit is having a lively conversation on the filibuster over there.

Riehl World View has a link to the PDF file of the actual agreement and this great observation.

It appears to me that the most curious part is how the Republicans in question have agreed to interpret the “Advice” clause. Quote: We believe that under Article II, Section 2 the word “Advice” speaks to consultation between the Senate and the President with regard to the use of the President’s power to make nominations. We encourage the Executive branch of government to consult with members of the Senate, both Democratic and Republican, prior to submitting a nomination to the Senate for consideration. This would allow the Dems to justifiably invoke their extraordinary circumstances rule based upon not agreeing with the nomination in the first place, claiming a failure of the Executive branch to adhere to their interpretation of the “Advice” clause.

Hattip Ace! Unbelievable , now these wimpy Republican Senators think they can speak with for the White House.

Here are the Filthy Fourteen who signed this document.  

Senators

And on and on it goes… The Therapist is most graphic in his assessment:

Washington–In a historic move on the Senate floor today, republican senators agreed to be date-raped by democratic senators, denying themselves the chance filibuster a particularly randy judiciary committee. “We have made history,” said Arizona senator John McCain. “We have eliminated the chance for filibuster on the next three judges, and unlimited the right to our own bodies as well. How much more senatorial congeniality can you get?” McCain also noted that the true crossroads victory on the part of the republicans was the clause added to the agreement that redefines the dictionary meaning of the phrase “extraordinary circumstances.”

From The AP:

Democratic officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that two other appeals court nominees whose named were omitted – White House staff secretary Brett Kavanaugh and Pentagon lawyer William Haynes – would be jettisoned. Republicans said they knew of no such understanding.

Even so, Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., noted he had not been a party to the deal, which fell short of his stated goal of winning yes-or-no votes on each of Bush’s nominees. “It has some good news and it has some disappointing news and it will require careful monitoring,” he said.

Red says Bill Frist can kiss his Presidential run good bye after tonight. Right Angle Blog gives the word out of Ohio: DeWine Sells Out

Count Mike “Spineless” “Backbone Not Present” DeWine as one of the signers of the WORST compromise in the history of the Senate. Why do I have the feeling that George Mitchell when he ran the Senate would not have caved this bad to the minority Republicans?? Good job DeWine…you’ve lost our support here at Right Angle.

Greg Martin has a great example of the Republican Buckle, specially commemorated for the Republican Senate today!

Republican buckle

Hat Tip Michelle Malkin


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