Senate Democrats' Critical Weakness
....in the filibuster fight is revealed in this Robert Novak "Saturday insider" blurb:
The true surprise here is that McCain was driving this hard a bargain by insisting upon an unconditional pledge from the other side that they wouldn't use the filibuster against future SCOTUS picks. That Dems balked isn't surprising at all.
For them it's very, very simple: As I wrote yesterday, the Democrats' overriding imperative is to avoid the Byrd Option at all costs. McCain's offer created an intolerable impasse in that it forced them to choose between rejection and all but certain triggering of Byrd now and acceptance and completely certain (and voluntary) concession of its effects later. And if they were to "pull a Clinton" by accepting "Sailor's" deal to avert Byrd and stuff three more Bush appellate nominees now, and then "change their minds" in the future SCOTUS confrontation, that would guarantee invocation of the Byrd Option by the Republicans in retaliation for such a double-cross.
The minority is just beginning to figure out that there's only so much they can do as the minority, and needlessly provoking the majority isn't on the list. Don't fall off your chair if another RINO (say, "Snarlin' Arlen") yet pulls a collapse out of his hat before Tuesday, but barring that, look for the Dems to quietly retreat to their next defensive line and begin digging in for the climactic battle to come.
Senator John McCain came close to completing and announcing a deal on judicial confirmations unacceptable to George W. Bush hours before the two old Republican intraparty rivals were to appear on the same platform.
That would have created an uncomfortable situation at Wednesday night's dinner of the International Republican Institute (IRI) at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington. McCain, the IRI's chairman, was to introduce President Bush, as the evening's principal speaker. Bush objected to the compromise, which would have accepted the defeat by a minority vote of three nominees for federal appellate courts (including Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen).
The McCain-brokered deal collapsed, apparently because of Democratic failure to guarantee consideration, without filibuster, of future Supreme Court nominees. At the IRI dinner, McCain and Bush spoke without either mentioning the judicial confirmation battle. [my emphasis]
The true surprise here is that McCain was driving this hard a bargain by insisting upon an unconditional pledge from the other side that they wouldn't use the filibuster against future SCOTUS picks. That Dems balked isn't surprising at all.
For them it's very, very simple: As I wrote yesterday, the Democrats' overriding imperative is to avoid the Byrd Option at all costs. McCain's offer created an intolerable impasse in that it forced them to choose between rejection and all but certain triggering of Byrd now and acceptance and completely certain (and voluntary) concession of its effects later. And if they were to "pull a Clinton" by accepting "Sailor's" deal to avert Byrd and stuff three more Bush appellate nominees now, and then "change their minds" in the future SCOTUS confrontation, that would guarantee invocation of the Byrd Option by the Republicans in retaliation for such a double-cross.
The minority is just beginning to figure out that there's only so much they can do as the minority, and needlessly provoking the majority isn't on the list. Don't fall off your chair if another RINO (say, "Snarlin' Arlen") yet pulls a collapse out of his hat before Tuesday, but barring that, look for the Dems to quietly retreat to their next defensive line and begin digging in for the climactic battle to come.
posted by JASmius at 12:44 AM
<<< Home