FOXNews is reporting (live) that a statement from Senator Mike DeWine’s office (R-OHIO) is scheduled for 7:30 PM EST. A compromise on the “constitutional” / “nuclear” option for circumventing Democratic filibustering of the President’s judicial nominees is expected to be announced.
Developing…
AP is reporting that a deal has been struck. FOXNew’s Major Garrett says Bill Frist’s office is confirming this. Details forthcoming—though I suspect the filibuster will be saved in exchange for up or down votes for most if not all of the President’s 7 nominees.
Personally, I hope the Republicans did not cave, and that each of the seven nominees receives an up or down vote. Anything else is unacceptable.
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update: The deal: Senators have stated they will not filibuster except in “extraordinary circumstances.”
This is the agreement. This.
And here I was thinking that filibusters were only supposed to be used under “extraordinary circumstances” to begin with.
In exchange for this promise, moderate Republicans sold out Saad and Myers, who will not—NOT, not—receive up or down votes.
Not.
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update 2: Fox has the story.
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update 3: Ace has a nice roundup of reaction here.
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update 4: From the text of the agreement:
We believe that, under Article II, Section 2, of the United States Constitution, 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 judicial nomination to the Senate for consideration.
There you go. A group of Senate “moderates” have essentially wrested power from the Executive branch and given it to the Legislative branch in something of a constitutional coup.
Given that McCain-Feingold was able essentially to destroy the First Amendment (oh, the repercussions are just starting, trust me; and to this day I stand agog at the SCOTUS ruling that upheld that piece of shit), John McCain could go down as the most important legislator in US history.
Ever.
Ever. As in, historians will one day be talking about him like they do Alexander Hamilton—only, y’know, from a government-regulated coffee shop inside a country that looks like something out of western Europe.
That ever.
Unless, perhaps, I’m overstating things a bit. Because of all the heroin I’ve been shooting between my toes.
(thanks to Riehl for the .pdf link; h/t Another Rovian Conspiracy; see also NRO’s Bench Memos)
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update 5: Professor Bainbridge disagrees with me (and others):
[…] I think this is probably a good outcome. Since I don’t believe that the GOP will control both the White House and the Senate for the rest of time, I’m glad to see the filibuster preserved as an option. There may come a day when conservatives need that tool. Plus which, once you abolish the filibuster as to judges, it becomes easy to do so as to all Presidential nominees, and then as to all legislation.
Well, if you believe the text of the agreement, the Senate just redefined “advice and consent” to mean that from here on out, they‘ll tell the President just who he can and cannot nominate. So the filibuster may not even be necessary to block judicial nominees anymore.
Bravo, Johnny Maverick!
(h/t Glenn)
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update 6 (or, as George Lucas insists on calling it, update 3): More disagreement, from Blackjack, Mark in Mexico, and Pej.
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update 7: Beldar is furious; so are Patterico and Malkin. Jeralyn, however, thinks the Dems got the shaft.
Sorry, Jeralyn, but Frist should have forced the Democrats into actually filibustering both the daughter of a sharecropper and a second well-respected female jurist who garnered 84% of the vote in Texas and was rated highly qualified by the ABA. Then they could have gone after Pryor, who has a long history of ruling against his own personal beliefs—in deference to current law—that making the “radical” label the Dems are trying to tag him with a really tough sell.
The moment I heard that McCain was involved, I knew this was going to turn out badly for the GOP.
Bastard.
Hinderaker says he’s going to be sick.
Glad to see his outrage is aimed at more than just Pepsico.
What absolute pussies.
Jeff,
Don’t believe the hype. The Republicans won. If anybody wants the full explanation, they can come to my place for a visit. But, I’ll give the short version here—the whole thing was about Janice Rogers Brown and because they got her, it is a net win.
Net win or no, this is not an issue for me that is amenable to political pragmatism or expediency.
Here’s what I wrote over at Ace’s:
For me this has always been a matter of principle. I don’t care that Saad or Meyers may not have had the votes to get confirmed. They should have been given an up or down vote.
Better hope Cheney runs for President in ‘08. Because neither Frist or McCain is getting my vote. Frist had plenty of opportunity to make the Dems actually filibuster but instead kept threatening and threatening until McCain, et al were able to step in and show just how willing they were to “compromise.”
Bullshit. Republicans were right on principle here. And now they can no longer lay claim to that position.
Hey, I wish politicians acted on principle, too. But, how does that saying go? “Wish in one hand, shit in the other, and see which one fills up first”.
I said weeks ago that the deal would happen and the nuke option wouldn’t go through. Republicans were right on principle with the government shutdown in 1995. How well did that work for them?
Ronald Reagan was right: “Politics is the second oldest profession, and most of the time, it resembles the first.”
Yeah, Repubs were right in ‘95 but had to shut down the government. Here, they had the opportunity to be right and force the Dems to shut down the government.
Instead, we get McCain strutting around like a maverick. So above the partisan fray.
I hope this works out as well as campaign finance reform has for him…
“extraordinary circumstances”= conservative original-intent jurists.
Fuck this shit. I’m gonna go play some video games. I can’t take it…..
I don’t think you have to worry about McCain. He probably just media-whored himself out of any remote possibility to win the Republican nomination. Sponging some moderates and independents does you no good when the core views you on the same level as a pubic louse.
Nice. Seems like the list of Republicans that I’d vote for in ‘08 is narrowing every month. Lately I’ve found myself wondering “how bad could Hillary be?”. Maybe the GOP’ll get their shit together and nominate Condi or pick a governor.
(snicker)
What the fuck?
What the fucking fuck?!
Sigh.
I swear to Allah (the pundit) that this RINO bullshit is tiresome.
I’ll ask the obvious fucking question. What’s the point in working for and electing a GOP Majority in both fucking houses if this is the fucking result?
Turing word? Fuck.
Along with the American people, Frist and Bush are the real losers here. Frist has no excuse. L. Graham and maybe a couple others wouldn’t have done this if BUsh was running Nationally, again. They had to be seeing him as a lame duck to make this move. Of course, McCain is just an asshole who would have done it anyway. The spineless six should receive some special treatment from this outrage.
This fucking pisses me off. I’m with you, Drum. The minute I heard John “Fellate the DC press corps” McCain was working on a deal, I fucking knew the GOP was going to cave.
Turing word? RINO.
So, in exchange for some empty Dem promises, the Republicans cave, and toss the nominees overboard? Shades of the Clinton years…
Well, there’s only one solution for that–elect more Republicans! A super majority is not enough, we obviously need to get 85 Republican senators elected, for a super-duper majority.
Turing word = face, as in, The Say Anything girl has a pair of ridiculously phony implants that might have been toilet plungers in a previous incarnation, but she has a somewhat cuter (though still vapid) face than the previous skank did.
The Say Anything girl has a pair of ridiculously phony implants…
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
For comic relief:
A Clinton-era book from the liberal Brookings Institution, on the evils of the filibuster, when practiced by Republicans. You can read it on netlibrary.com after you sign up for a free account in your local library.
Turing = built, as in the Say Anything girls just don’t seem to be as built as the eye candy I remember from back in the 1970s.
A man needs his illusions…
There is something a bit wrong with the new SA girl. Thanks to her, I now get aroused by packages of Swiss Miss pudding.
I was miffed by the Senate RINO shennaigans, but the bad mouthing of the new “Say Anything” gal has me OUTRAGED!
Hmmm.
“Don’t believe the hype. The Republicans won. If anybody wants the full explanation, they can come to my place for a visit. But, I’ll give the short version hereâ€â€the whole thing was about Janice Rogers Brown and because they got her, it is a net win.”
A net win? Jesus Frigging Christ!
It’s not about her! It’s about the goddamn Supreme Court! WTF? How on earth could you say it’s a frigging WIN?
It is about the Supreme Court, Ed. Where do you think Rogers Brown is going to end up…Walmart?
There are bigger issues here, such as accelerating the erosion of the Democratic lock on the African American vote. When it comes to politics, I don’t deal with how things should be, I deal with how they are.
But, if you want to express OUTRAGE, feel free. There are plenty of people around who are more than happy to join you.
Where *is* Allah? Who’s got him? I thought he might be hiding here. Awfully silent. What’s up, Allah?
Fuck this “we covered the spread” horseshit. The majority in the Senate got rolled and the minority fucking well knows it.
Spam word: amount, as in the amount of spine Senate republicans have: none.
Turing = could, as in The Republicans could’a would’a should’a….
Turing = fact, as in Republicans got rolled again, out of sheer habit it seems, and that’s a fact.
Turing = used, as in Republican voters are feeling as used as a week-old Kotex.
I love the “we covered the spread” analogy
It’s like celebrating a loss in game 6 of a 7 game play off series. “Hey! We still get to play game 7. Sure, it’s in their barn, but hey! Game Seven!!! Fire up!”
Uh-huh.
I just want to inject one more note of reality. I know the OUTRAGE crowd doesn’t want reality at the moment, but it’s what I deal in:
If you want a Senate that has the capability to say to the minority “roll over bitches and like it”, you would probably need at least 65 Senators on your side. 65 would probably cover the wobblers that you will always get from the NE liberal states. Any Republican from a place like Maine or Vermont spends most of their Senate term doing a tap dance. If Susan Collins started voting like Tom Coburn, she would get flushed faster than a used tampon.
What do you have—you have 55 Senators with wobblers and a hostile media (Yes, THAT liberal media). Yet, you want them to take the “roll over bitches and like it” attitude. Umm, OK, sure. That might work in the Blogo Centauri galaxy, but it doesn’t work in Washington DC.
I’m not apologizing for Frist and McCain—I don’t care much for either one. And, I admitted on my site that it wasn’t a great deal, just that it was a net win. They should have gotten an up/down on all of the outstanding nominees for it to be a really good deal. But, they didn’t—such is life.
OK, I’m done. Resume OUTRAGE!
Hmmmm.
You must be joking.
“It is about the Supreme Court, Ed. Where do you think Rogers Brown is going to end up…Walmart?”
She’s been appointed to an appeals court, not the Supreme Court. And the Democrats can easily argue, since she was just seated as an appeals court justice, that she lacks the seniority for a Supreme Court position. Frankly the idea that Brown could be seated as an appeals court justice, and then appointed to the Supreme Court without the Democrats going apeshit, is absurd.
“There are bigger issues here, such as accelerating the erosion of the Democratic lock on the African American vote.”
Which would have been achieved IF the Democrats were forced to filibuster Brown. But they don’t, aren’t and won’t. The Republicans allowed the Democrats to dodge a bullet.
“When it comes to politics, I don’t deal with how things should be, I deal with how they are.”
Congratulations! Did you catch the “109th Congress” bit or should I spell it out?
“But, if you want to express OUTRAGE, feel free. There are plenty of people around who are more than happy to join you.”
The Republicans got rolled like a drunken sailor.
There is nothing admirable in that.
I’ve been listening to “realists” tell me that such and so was a “net win” every time the GOP got pimp slapped by the dems. This is the last time.
All you Janice Rogers Brown enthusiasts better see her on the bench of the Supreme Court come Fall, or else. And she better be the second coming of Robert Bork for all that’s been sacrificed if your theory proves accurate.
All you net-win types best pray to the electoral gods that the democrats don’t play to type and fuck you idiots up the ass AGAIN with your idiotic compromises. “Extraordinary circumstances” my aching bung-hole.
Damn. Just damn.
Hmmm.
With this agreement the Republicans have given away two prospective Supreme Court nominations. The 110th Congress won’t get seated until January of 2007. And the 2008 Presidential election run will start very early that year. President Bush will have, at most, a 2-3 month window to successfuly nominate two Supreme Court justices. If the process takes any longer, then the Democrats can successfully argue that the decision should belong to the next sitting President.
This is just completely f-d up. There is no way two Supreme Court nominations are going to happen in an election year, particularly with the 2004 election as an example when campaigning started so early. In order to even get one done Bush will have to cave completely and send a “moderate”, i.e. liberal but slightly less flaming, to the bench or face having Hillary apppoint two Supremes.
I’m going to be frigging sick.
What are you crying about? You won. Frist got the store. My reaction:
Hmmm.
“What are you crying about? You won. Frist got the store. My reaction:”
Completely wrong.
Brown was an issue that could have been used against the Democrats, if they filibustered her. But the Democrats have *never* filibustered Brown. They threatened to do so, but were never actually forced to do it. Brown becomes an appeals court justice, who will then fade away into relative obscurity. She won’t be a candidate for the SCOTUS because she just got seated into one position and the Democrats can easily argue against giving her yet another one. It would, and could, look like bad faith.
Additionally this agreement enjoins the Republicans from ANY rules changes until AFTER the 109th Congress. This means that nothing can be done until the 110th Congress gets seated, which is in 2007.
Now imagine Bush trying to get a Supreme Court nomination through in 2007. With the Democrats running a primary in March.
I’ll say this much. That damn freshman Republican senator is in for a rude shock.
spam word: history
Uh, why is everyone talking circles around this? The fight was about nuking the unconstitutional use of the filibuster to prevent up or down votes on the president’s nominees to the federal judiciary.
The GOP punted on that question, at best. At worst, they ceded to the dems the ability to filibuster with impunity any nominee they deem, in their sole judgement, “extreme” without any recourse to a “constitutional option”. With one or possibly two Supreme Court nominations coming, this is a nice tactical move for the dems.
All the rest is just window dressing.
Pathetic. A truly staggering piece of crap.
And Bainbridge is nuts. If the Repubs ever need the judical filibuster to use against a Dem majority, it’ll last about ten seconds, if that…
Jeralyn’s got a point. I think there’s plenty in this to make both sides unhappy. The left gets to be upset that Dems caved on current nominees and the right gets to be upset that this got punted to the next congress. There’s plenty of crying going on over at Kos’s too, the reaction seems to be fairly split. I still think that Dems got the better end on this. As an independent, I’m pretty disgusted with boths sides.
Excellent summary post Jeff – nice to be able to stop by PW and get the scoop…
I’m willing to give this a little while to find out if this is just the ugly process of compromise or a continued ursupation of the Constitutional powers. I hope it’s the former and fear it’s the latter.
Every benefit that might accrue to Republicans from this deal depends on the good will and honesty of the Democrats, which means it ain’t gonna happen. There were enough votes to force real concessions from the Democrats but Frist and company just gave away every advantage Republicans had.
It will take the Dems about a nanosecond to prclaim extrordinary circumstances in the case of any conservative nominee and even less time to nuke the filibuster if they ever have a need. With the current cast, we would need about 75 Republicans to control the Senate.
Bush 41 traded a tax increase for spending cuts, promised by the Democrats. The tax increase sailed through and the cuts never happened. The Democrats will promise anything and deliver nothing. Then they’ll bask in the glow of the media for upholding their principles.
Anyone who trusts the Democrats is insane and anyone who thinks this wasn’t a disaster for both the Republicans and the country is equally crazy.
The real victory here is that I decided against having a Pepsi with lunch. Another setback for the terrorists.
On the more serious side, this is a short-term shit sandwich for conservatives. But there are a couple of positives:
1) This is the final nail in the coffin for John McCain’s Presidential hopes. Sure, the media will still love him, but the conservative base will never back him in any meaningful way ever again.
2) Janice Rogers Brown will be on the Federal bench. And she will be a contender for a nomination to the Supreme Court in the future. Since nobody’s brought it up so far, I’ll say it: The Dems are going to have to twist themselves into pretzels to explain why they’re going to oppose the nomination of the first black woman to the highest court in the land. And whenever it happens, they’ll lose. And (hope against hope) they’ll lose some of the black vote that they’ve been counting on for 40 years.
Either way, I drank a cool grapefruit-flavored Squirt with my lunch.
If Frist has any backbone he’ll test the trust of these clowns by re-nominating Miguel Estrada immediately.
I tend to agree with the outraged. This is not a net win, because quite frankly, the republicans got nothing in the deal – “extraordinary circumstances” is simply another way of saying “republican nominee who believes in God”. The democrats retain their ability to filibuster and you damn well know when Rhenquist kicks the bucket, they’ll be using it again.
From my perspective, I’m tired of the majority party acting like a minority party. I’ve sent email to my senators and the RNC- they’re not getting another dime from me until they stop pussing out on every issue. IMHO, forcing the dems to fillibuster was the right move- I’d like to see Bourbon Ted reading the Constitution on c-span to keep it going- instead, we get McCain brokering a “deal” and Byrd and his hood declaring that the Senate “saved the republican”.
No Grand Klagle, the senate has fucked the republic, again, in the ass, without KY. Just how you like it.
Turing = began, as in I woke up this morning with the usual post-slumber amnesia, but then the cascade of memories of this mess began.
Blackjack, I haven’t heard that moving expression since my father passed away in ‘61.
NOW THIS is the inner conservative I love in Jeff… You hit the nail on this one buddy.
Regarding the Say Anything Girl.. imagine. Two plastic bags filled with saline and I could look just like that.
Ewwww….please tell me you guys don’t like that.
I heard about this last night and figured, hmmm, sounds like probably 80% of everyone will be happy about this. Most of them get votes, a couple don’t. You guys, (mostly very conservative people it looks like), saved yourself Republican seats in 2006 by making this deal. You should be kissing McCain’s shoes…but I know you won’t.
Don’t like that. Looks weird, feels worse.
*You should be kissing McCain’s shoes…but I know you won’t.*
I don’t know about McCain’s shoes but I suggest you remove your head from your ass. The only thing John McCain cares about is John fucking McCain. His idea of a good deal is anything which gets him more press and assists him in appealing to those oh-so-important moderates he’ll need to have a shot at it in 2008. McCain strikes me as a bitter bitter man, who believes its been his turn to be president for 8 years now but was foiled by the chimp and his lackeys.
Only liberals, the mentally handicapped and the state of Arizona havent figured out Mccain yet.
“Feed” as in McCain feeds the MSM a bunch of shit which the MSM then attempts to turn into gold.
Good to see Erik is already buying into the media spin—that the only people who oppose this are on the “far right.”
Well, that would come as a surprise to many of the folks who were angered by my stance on the Sciavo case. But be that as it may…
As I said above, for me the Constitution is clear on advice and consent, and the Democratic minority using the threat of filibuster as a de facto veto over the President’s nominees in such an unprecedented way was a fight Republicans—who have increased their numbers in the Senate over the last few elections—should have been willing to fight at all costs.
There are certain things you simply cannot compromise on, and from my perspective, this was one of them.
And for those of you pragmatists out there, remember: making the Democrats stand up and filibuster a sharecroppers daughter and another well-qualified female jurist would have hurt them. We just saved them from that PR nightmare.
The President said he believed every one of his nominees should get an up or down vote; the “moderate” Republicans said fuck you, Bush, and tried to score points with what they believe is the great swathe of centrists. And it worked—already Lanny Davis is declaring a victory for a centrist coalition. And who do we associate with that “third way”…?
Great PR for Hillary, and she didn’t have to do a thing except sit back and watch the Republican “mavericks” crap all over the voters who sent 55 Republicans to the Senate.
This deal BLOWS. I have to agree with a number of other posters – we’re getting rogered by our own party. As a friend of mine used to say, “If you’re getting f***ed in the ass, and you don’t like it, as yourself, ‘Did I bend over?’ If the answer is ‘Yes,’ then STAND UP!” It’s time to stand up. F*** the Republicans, I’m voting Libertarian . . . even if the candidate is (as usual) a clueless whackjob on foreign policy issues. I’m sick of electing “Republicans” who act more like Democrats than most of the Democrats. So far, George Bush has gotten exactly TWO things right – tax cuts and the War on Terror. On everything else, INCLUDING how he let down his judicial nominees, he’s been a disaster. Frist is just as bad. McCain . . . don’t get me started on McCain.
On another note, I hate to be the guy who doesn’t get the joke. Who, exactly, are the “Say Anything Girls”????? And what’s wrong with bolt-ons? My sister-in-law got them, and BELIEVE ME, you’d think she looks great.
Turing word: screwed, as in, I’ve just been screwed by John McCain . . . .EEEEEEEWWWW!!!!!
The fact that you are looking at your SIL with that much intensity bothers me.
Not to get off the subject of the Republicans totally wimping out on this when they didn’t have to, but the whole breast implant thing seems just wrong to me. (and this is coming from a small breasted woman) I think it has everything to do with low self esteem. I wouldn’t dream of cutting into my body for big boobs. Just STUPID.
Well, Sparkle, if it bothers YOU, you ought to see how it annoys my wife!
Actually, for the most part, I agree with you. And my SIL is a good case in point – tall, slim, VERY attractive, smart as a whip, but naturally small in the breast department. No reason in the UNIVERSE to do it, but she did (right after her partner of ten years (she’s a REAL libertarian – doesn’t believe in marriage, because the government shouldn’t have any say in her relationship with another person) dumped her for a barmaid with – you guessed it – big boobs. But, then, her partner was a scumbag, too.
Hey, but what about my OTHER question? Who are the “Say Anything” girls????
umm… the slutty models in the ads to the right of this page.
Obligatory rebutting of RWS:
“Slutty” means willing to do anything to anyone more or less right? How do you know just from those pictures? Aren’t they more “racy”? You had some racy pictures back in the day RWS, and I wouldn’t call you slutty!
Erik!!! They were hardly slutty!!! I didn’t have my boobs hanging out. And I wasn’t posing seductively. A bathing suit is fine. It is how you wear it.
But your right, I am being a bit judgemental. They could be nice choir girls for all I know….*smirk*
If it is the intention of Bush to put Brown up for a vacant Supreme slot, and if the Dems decide at that point to use the ‘extreme circumstance’ option, then the Republicans will be able to scrap the whole deal because the Dems will have gone back on their word. After all, how can she be not an extreme circumstance now and an extreme circumstance later. In this sense, the deal is not that bad if Bush intends to put her name up for the post.
On the other hand, I am tired of the no balls approach of the Republicans. It seems they have never met a fight they will not shy away from.
I agree with Bainbridge.
The no balls approach is better than having your balls handed to you by Democrats in the nect election.
What conservatives should remember is that a lasting Republican majority in Congress is a fairly unusual phenomenon post-Depression. Both previous times the GOP won control of both chambers, they lost them both the very next term. The rise of alternative media like bloggers and talk radio has helped a great deal in creating and maintaining the GOP’s current majority, but this Republican leadership has also helped themselves by being smart enough to build consensus and avoid creating high-visibility contention that the mainstream media can feed off of. I shudder to think of the ad spots (and gleeful MSM play-along) use of the nuclear option would have generated in 2006.
There was another angle to the rules change that also had a large potential downside. If the Democrats did regain control (and it’s going to happen someday, face it righties), that could have resulted in a nightmare scenario for centrists and Republicans: once Republicans set the “precedent” of breaking filibusters by rewriting the rules with 51 votes, majority Democrats who are far less married to tradition and strict constructionism than Republicans could simply argue national health care, for instance, is too important to allow the GOP to block (much more important than mere judges). If you think that’s farfetched, remember: the NYT was advocating the end of the filibuster in 1995. Don’t count on the media to defend the Constitution, at least not from Democrats.
I agree RWS, they were not slutty at all. I think we need to see a couple dozen more to be sure though.
Hi Jeff,
I still have a challenge out for the prophets of doom in my Wine for Winners Challenge.
So far, the gloom and doom crown is sounding like the Dems–long on bark and short on bite. Care to nip?