Why the "Deal" is Setting in Cement

Mark Noonon opines at Blogs for Bush that...

[I]t appears, from where I sit, that the firestorm of outrage has made at least two of the seven compromisers are bit uncomfortable.

That would be Mike DeWine and Lindsey Graham after the Democrats blew off the vaunted "truce" and an explicit assurance to Bill Frist and filibustered the Bolton nomination.

I don't think the minority would have done that if a recess wasn't imminent. They just wanted to quiet any minor grumbles in their own camp that were emerging from acquiescing to the Owen, Brown, and Pryor nominations. Week after next they'll probably allow cloture on the latter two and Bolton, primarily to not drive DeWine and Graham back to GOP lines.

The conventional wisdom is now that this "compromise" is untenable, unsustainable, can't last, doomed, etc. I think it has a lot more durability than CW gives it credit for. After all, when was the last time you saw a dog not react happily to being fed scraps from the dinner table and get a pat on the head or scratch behind the ears?

There is always the possibility of the Donks overplaying even this hand. Remember that we're not talking about the Clinton machine, but rather, Harry Reid and his merry band of the verbally incontinent. They've been stepping on rakes for years now, and they could still make things so "uncomfortable" for Graham and DeWine that they'd be almost forced to repent.

But I'm pessimistic about it. This "Deal" has the feel of a watershed, a climactic turning point. In order to get back to the point we were at Monday afternoon there's a ton of ground that has to be regained and a ton of negative momentum to be overcome. And our bunch wasn't getting much done even with the wind of last November's victory at their backs.

It's like a baseball team with a punchless lineup. The only way such a team can succeed is by holding the score down and keeping the game close. If it falls behind early, it's finished.

Our Senate "team" doesn't know which end of the bat is up, and thinks it's playing wiffleball for a round of root beers. And now seven of its members have all but changed uniforms between innings.

Maybe DeWine and Graham can be lured back. But I don't know what Frist can offer them that can compete with what this "Deal" shows they most craved.

UPDATE: Captain Ed brings our attention to an AP article that shows this "deal" was, from Harry Reid's standpoint, a set up all along (as if further confirmation was necessary).

The signatures of 14 Senate centrists, seven from each party, spilled across the last page of a hard-won compromise on President Bush's judicial nominees. But whatever elation the negotiators felt, the Senate's Democratic leader did not share it.

In the privacy of his Capitol office last Monday night, Senator Harry Reid, D-NV, asked for commitments from six Democrats fresh from the talks. Would they pledge to support filibusters against Brett Kavanaugh and William Haynes, two nominees not specifically covered by the pact with Republicans?

Some of the Democrats agreed. At least one, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, declined.

Amazing what facing re-election in a "red" state will do for a Donk's integrity. Pity it won't have the same effect on Pachyderm intelligence or fortitude.

So, there it is, Senators Graham and DeWine. You have become the biggest suckers, saps, and patsies of all. So much so that even the Extreme Media can't help pointing and laughing.

In the meantime, the "home folks" are readying the tar and feathers. In another B4B post, Mark Noonan is reporting that...

I've been hearing that a couple of the Supine Seven got an earful from the conservative base after their deal with the Democrats and they may be amenable to reason on the issue; Senator Hatch's article tends to confirm this view.

That, presumeably, would also be DeWine and Graham. And "got an earful" hopefully means, "liquified their audio canals."

These two men (the other five are beyond hope) now stand at a crossroads. They can either realize the horrendous error in judgment they made and "come on home," or they can get their backs up, stop listening, and complete their assimilation into drones in Dirty Harry's collective.

Upon so capricious and impulsive a duo does the fate of the Constitution itself depend.

My God, we really are doomed.