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Wednesday, May 25, 2005

The Boston Globe: "Bush and Frist Got What They Wanted"

Joobo has not commented at the growing crisis over the Downies and their blocking tactics regarding President Bush's judicial nominees, because up until now Republicans in the Senate were spineless and refused to put an end to it. We're here to point out what lowlife scum Downies and liberals are, so pointing out Republican silliness would do us no good. But now that the "deal" has been made to avoid a "constitutional crisis" (a crisis caused by the majority party changing the rules, which the Constitution allows them to do), we have time to comment on it.

While many on the right feel betrayed, a close look at the "deal" shows that Downies have sealed themselves into a corner - they allowed votes on the three judicial candidates whom they most despised, and at the same time the "constitutional option" remains on the table while the Downies promise only to filibuster only in "extraordinary circumstances," whatever the hell that means.

So imagine Joobo's hilarity and snickerdy when he reads the following angst from liberals at The Boston Globe (soon to suffer some layoffs because their parent company, The New York Times, is dropping in circulation rather rapidly):

Bush and Frist got what they wanted

THE WASHINGTON press corps loves the conceit that polarization is what ails American politics and that bipartisan moderation will save the day. The high drama of the ''nuclear option" averted by brave moderates from both parties fits the script perfectly.

In the conventional account, Republican leader Bill Frist, tired of court nominees being denied a floor vote by obstructionist Democrats, threatened to scrap the filibuster rule. Just hours before this nuclear option was to be exercised, 14 moderates of both parties, after marathon negotiations, heroically fashioned a compromise in which just three controversial nominees get a floor vote, and the filibuster is preserved.

Several press accounts had Frist isolated and humiliated, and right-wing groups furious. The only problem is that this happy spin is almost totally wrong. Consider what actually happened.

By threatening what amounted to a parliamentary coup d'etat, Frist got nearly everything he wanted. A rules change requires a two-thirds vote. Frist's ''nuclear option" would have had the leadership rule from the chair that the filibuster can be scrapped for judicial nominees; then a simple majority of 51 senators would have upheld the parliamentary ruling. End of filibuster.

Faced with bad publicity for this show of crude force, several Republicans looked for a face-saver that would still preserve the substantive result -- confirmation of extremist nominees. They and Frist won. This was no mutiny against the Senate leader; it was merely a change of tactic.

What does the vaunted compromise actually do? First, it guarantees an up-or-down floor vote on three of the most reactionary judges ever to come before the Senate: Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor, and Priscilla Owen. It was Democratic resistance to these appellate nominees that caused Frist to go nuclear in the first place. He and George W. Bush won. The three judges are now likely to be confirmed, and other extremist nominees will keep coming.

Second, the deal commits the GOP to relent on the plan to scrap the filibuster, but only for now. Frist is free to revive the nuclear option any time he likes, say, when the first Bush nominee to the Supreme Court comes before the Senate. Frist can hold this threat over the heads of Democrats, who are committed to minimize the use of filibusters.


Robert Kuttner is one of the most sickeningly liberal writers on a sickeningly liberal newspaper, so listening him to him rank out Bush and Frist and Bush's judicial nominees is no big deal. But reading his agony over how bad this deal is for Downies is hilarious, to say the least.

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