Phew.
This on one hand is very inspiring. It shows that a handful of people on both sides had the guts enough to listen to the American people and go behind closed doors, in defiance of their respective parties, and hammer out a compromise. These brave 14 people realized that the bickering HAD to come to an end and that they and they alone had the power to stop it. Just 14 votes taken out of the equation made all the difference. Even though the rest of Congress appears for the moment to be still perching with teeth and fists bared, they realize they are caught in a bind. This is "an army of one" personified. "Listen to us," they're saying, "This is your last chance to avert disaster."
On the other hand, there are two reasons why nobody should be openly celebrating just yet. The first one depends on whether you're a left or right winger. It's hard to say just who "won" on this deal. Priscilla Owen, the Texas judge, was at the top of Bush's appointee list and the worst of the worst, if you are a Democrat. In addition to being the extreme right wing personified, on every issue--in some cases she makes Clarence Thomas look like a patsy--she is also controversial in that she is willing to challenge existing law. Even conservative Newsweek called her controversial in this regard. If she became a Justice it would be one of the biggest disasters in American history--IF you were a Democrat.
Plus, this doesn't solve anything yet, because if Renquist dies, and she took his place, the fundamental balance of the Court would not change. Real change could only come if more than 2 of Bush's nominess were confirmed--and at least one other Justice retired or died in office, in the next 3 years. Apart from Renquist, we don't see that happening--yet. O'Conner was supposed to retire 2 yrs ago but she changed her mind and she's staying until her dying breath. Bush is under pressure to deliver real "change" to his religious right base but he can't wave a magic wand and pressure Justices to retire. Not the 4 left-leaning ones/moderates anyway. And I'm sure the moderate O'Conner decided to stay because she looked ahead and saw what was coming.
If Bush left office without the fundamental balance of the Supreme Court changed, then in the Republican mind it would be a huge and historic loss and a waste of his office.
The Democrats are cautious about this compromise becuase it's no guaruntee that Bush will change his ways and actually treat the minority party as if its actually exists. The Republicans are exremely upset that a handful of the faithful deserted their leader when he needed support the most, and they are going to punish those people (Graham, etc.) I think everyone is shell-shocked and caught off guard. Nobody seems to be happy, even though both parties are putting a brave face on it. Nobody, but esp not the Republican, expected "defections." And in the face of those defections, there's not a damned thing either party can do. In the next few days both parties are going to have to be doing some serious soul-searching, but out of the two, the Republicans are going to have to do more. Reid had hinted of a compromise before. Frist did not budge. It's the Republicans who have the upper hand, and they've been sailing along from victory to victory treating the other party as if they didn't exist. Are they going to listen to these brave individuals? No. I think not. Instead they are going to treat them like "Anonymous news sources" in the government..hunt them down in private and threaten them.
At this point, nobody knows where it will go.
THe Democrats can now say, "We compromised once, we were willing to do a deal. So why are you putting this pressure on us again? Now, we have no choice." The Republicans can say," Here we go again." I think they will be the bigger users of the compromise as political capital, even though I suspect they were the more adverse to the whole thing.
. Good for them. I hope that one day I'll have the wits about me to be able to compromise for the good of the people.
but they may yet win the war. As Focus on the Family lamented, the filibuster optrion for Bush's Supreme Court nonimees is still open--and from now on, the Republicans CAN'T change the rules on Filbusters becuase they'd be breaking their own promise. Of the two compronmises, the language of the Republicans regarding the "nuclear option" was more explciit and less open to interpretation than the vague "extrorinary circumstances" language the Dems offered to go by. And in their mind, a Supreme COurt nominee vote is easily an "extroridnary circumstance." And in the long term, that's what this is about.
