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The Compromise
Who won, who lost, and who’s screeching and throwing their feces through the bars of their cage
© Bryan Zepp Jamieson
5/25/05
http://zeppscommentaries.com/Politics/compromise.htm
If you want to know who won in the compromise the Senate reached to
avert a “nuclear option” vote on the filibuster, you need only visit the
loony-right website Free Republic. They are going out of their minds with rage
and scorn.
Of course, they’re usually going out of their minds with rage and scorn. One
time when I looked in on them (for much the same reason that you check your
sewer pipes in the basement) they were going out of their minds with rage and
scorn over the fact that Clinton’s dog got run over by a truck, and they were
already concocting conspiracy theories as to why “KKKlinton” would want Buddy
“out of the picture.” Obviously, you don’t visit Free Republic for the good
mental hygiene.
The first thing I found at the freeper site was a list of the seven “RINOs”
– Republicans In Name Only – who supposedly sold George out, along with their
email and office numbers so concerned gibbering nutcases could share their
thoughts and death threats. As an afterthought, the names of the seven moderate
Democrats were included, too, but freepers were less upset about them. Everyone
there “knows” Democrats are insane communists who openly disobey their
president. (Remember: Free Republic =/ mental hygiene).
This was followed with an interview with Senator John Cornyn – you remember
him, he’s the Texas nutsack who said it was understandable that people would
want to murder judges – who bemoaned the death of what he called “the Senate’s
unswerving 214-year tradition of majority vote for all judicial nominees.” But,
ever the optimist, he went on to promise that one day, all judges would rule
Republican and the disease of dissent would be forever stamped out. Or
something like that.
Pat Buchanan (yes, he’s still around) compared the agreement to the Munich
conference of 1938. Bucky thinks that the poor betrayed Frist should force
up-or-down votes on the seven judges not covered by the agreement, forcing
traitors like John McCain to vote for or against.
Bucky apparently has forgotten what happened the last time the GOP tried
strong arming a moderate senator and punishing him for not doing the obedient
fascist goosestep. That would have been Jim Jeffords. Now Bucky thinks the
party should attack seven Senators at once.
Hey, I’m jiggy with that. If the Republicans want to end up with 48 seats
in the Senate by mid summer, hey, that’s cool.
Bill Frist was visibly unhappy with the compromise. He declared that he was
"not a party'' to the agreement, and very obviously would never have accepted it
if he thought he could override the 14 moderates and get the 50 votes he needed.
(Like everyone, I was vote counting, and guesstimated that the Dems had 49 of
the 51 votes THEY needed. But all six of the votes I couldn’t account for were
Republican Senators).
In America’s usually-disappointing mainstream media, the response was, of
course, tepid and indecisive. The New York Times, a publication given to
writing misleading headlines to please Republicans, had “In Senate Deal, a
Modest Win for Bush, but More Tests Lie Ahead” as their lead on their web site.
Over at the WaHoPo, Howard Kurtz, a man wedded to the “on the other hand” school
of writing, described the compromise as “a great clash of principles – or an
exercise in hypocrisy.” Your choice, folks – Kurtz has something to please
almost everyone. The paper itself headlined it on their webpage as “Senators'
Pact Is Unlikely to End Battle,” describing the compromise – accurately, in my
opinion – as fragile and not likely to survive the looming battle over who
should replace the dying William Rehnquist. The LA Times probably had the best
coverage, describing the compromise as “a shaky win for [the] Bipartisan
Center.”
I thought that was particularly apt, and described it to one of the Weasels
as “this means that Joe Lieberman is now the de facto Senate majority whip.” If
the centrists cohere, the onslaught of the neo-fascists is blunted, at least for
the time being.
Matt Drudge was extremely restrained, limiting himself to a one word
headline (“Deal”) that linked to a generic news piece on the compromise. On
Usenet, the right wingers were conspicuously silent about the compromise, but
most of them have to wait until Rush Limbaugh comes on and tells them what their
opinions are. It may get noisier there later in the day.
Now, the agreement itself. The Senate allows straight votes on Priscilla
Owens (5th circuit, in a part of the country where constitutional rights have
never been very important anyway), William Pryor (11th circuit, out here in the
west) and Janice Rogers Brown (DC). It’s worth noting that Harry Reid had
offered to let SEVEN of the nominees slide through – including these three
losers – in a compromise deal offered two weeks ago. Frist turned it down cold.
Even if they do get voted in by the Senate, the left wing blogosphere is
going to be watching them like hawks, Brown especially. She’s the one who made
the public remarks about the bench being the place to conduct a war against
secular humanism, and if her decisions even HINT that she’s implementing such a
vile philosophy, the left will destroy her career.
The compromise will probably collapse when Rehnquist dies, or if (less
likely) any of the other Supremos decides to pack it in at the end of this
term. But for now, it upholds the rule of filibuster, although Frist can invoke
the nuclear option at a future date, and we go through all this again.
Except Frist is less likely to do that. Support for the idea, tepid to
begin with, has eroded steadily despite the endless blasts of propaganda from
the right. A poll that was released just yesterday showed that a large majority
of Americans (64%) supported keeping the filibuster, specifically as a means of
control on judicial nominations, and only 31% supported the nuclear option (CBS
News). Even more disturbing for Frist are other polls which show that only 17%
think Congress has the same priorities as the country at large (and Republican
congressmen considerably less than that) while 65% disagree.
This is following a general erosion of GOP support that comes at a time
before they could make elections totally moot.
Like all compromises, it thrills nobody, and everyone had to give a little.
But the Republicans had to give more, and with the tide turned against them,
have essentially lost an important battle.
Democrats, on a split decision.