Redstate

the filibuster will fail, but at least 20 dems will give it a try.

Alito will be confirmed and the circus will continue with the next round of circuit court nominees.

Anybody think they will take Brett Kavanaugh lying down?  Don't bet on it.  The squealing will start all over again and we'll be back in the same situation as we were before.

Odds on the next SCOTUS resignation?  Doesn't really matter.  It will be the same story all over again unless the legal counsel for NOW or NARAL is nominated.  

It'll be the same story until that, or the balance of power in the Senate changes.

52-47-1, it gets harder.  57-42-1, it gets easier.

57-42-1 could be acheived, but it ain't gonna be easy.

And until we quit complaining about our crappy candidates, it isn't going to be realistic.

If we accomplish nothing else after getting Alito seated on the court, we should at least get behind those candidates we have and work to get them elected.  And yes, that even means Chaffee should he win the primary.

And to tie this all together with Leon's RedHot post on Chafee and the earlier discussion about dumping Chafee overboard...

The reality is that Chafee will vote for cloture on a filibuster.  So will Specter and Collins and Snowe.  At least two of those four pro-choice Republicans will vote for Alito's confirmation.  Meanwhile, a huge swath of red-state, pro-life Democrats will be voting no on Alito.

The reason this struck me as significant is that it echoes a comment I read on another conservative blog recently, which is that we are now at a point where the pro-life/pro-choice dichotomy overlaps the Republican/Democrat dichotomy, where a Republican officeholder, despite his label on the abortion issue, will exercise his power in a way that advances the goals of the pro-life movement, while a Democratic officeholder, also despite his abortion label, will almost always advance the pro-choice movement.

A great example of this can be found in a hypothetical presidential race between Rudy Giuliani and Mark Warner.  In order to even get to the nomination, Rudy would have to assure conservatives that his judges would be somewhere to the right of O'Connor and would likely end up being in the Roberts range.  The best conservatives could hope to get out of a President Warner --- that southern red-stater --- would be another Breyer who every now and then voted pragmatically and not ideologically.  In other words, a non-fire-breathing liberal who would definitely be to the left of O'Connor.  And so once again, you'd have a New York Republican appointing right-of-center judges and a Virginia Democrat appointing left-of-center judges.

The reason this takes some getting used to is that things weren't always like this.  Go 20 years back and you'd find pro-life Dems voting pro-life and pro-choice GOPers voting pro-choice.  But the labels are almost entirely for electability reasons these days (e.g., a pro-lifer is not going to win statewide office in Maine, etc).  And it's increasingly becoming a party issue, not an issue independent of the parties like it once was.

My own 2 cents (1.3 cents after taxes).

This is true.  Party is a better predictor than pro-life/pro-choice label on the most important abortion issue of the day: judges.

When Roe falls or is chipped away enough that the debate returns to the elected branches of government, then the personal views will matter more.

And I think it's bad news. I hope I'm wrong.

May you get to spend your birthday evening somewhere other than the US Senate building.  :)

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Bush_Job_Approval.htm

The President's job approval rating has shot up the past couple of days, could it be because of the people approving of this pick?

Most likely, it's just a 2-day aboration within the margin of error, since it's been hovering around 45/46% for a month now.  But still, all this talk, day after day, of the President pushing for a qualified nominee, with Democrats playing games, it could be good for the poll numbers.

    91, 99, 100...

    I don't give a hoot how many days it's been-- the "satisfaction" the D's get in prolonging this is much like the temporary ease a junkie gets in receiving windfall doses, all the while knowing that cold turkey is inevitably coming...

...sooner, or later.

Either way, I'm fine with it.

Rejoice while you can, Dems-- the Alito juggernaut is headed this way!

I can't wait to replace the next justice.  :)

but probably not this year. Most likely the Dems will gain one or two seats this November (sorry to be pessimistic, but the odds are in their favor). Of course, even then the GOP will still control the Senate and the critically important judiciary committee. Moreover, it's entirely possible another resignation could occur before the election. These things tend to catch us by surprise, and most of those guys on the SCOTUS are as old as dirt. Also, we can take heart in two facts.

1. With the confirmation of Alito the three youngest members of the Court will all be conservatives: Alito (55), Thomas (57), Roberts(50). All of them should serve for another twenty years at least. At 69 Scalia is robust for his age and may have another good ten years on the court.
   
2. The left wing of the court is getting decidedly gray. Souter is the young pup at 66. Breyer is 67 and reportedly unhealthy (we wish him a very long life, but perhaps his health might be best served by retirement). Ginsburg is 72, but reportedly very healthy (Still, why waste your Golden years on the court Ruthie?! Florida is a hip place to be, especially for elderly Jewish ladies). Stevens is the oldest member at 85 years of age. That leaves the SWING VOTE, Justice Kennedy. He is 69, and I haven't heard any rumors about him being unhealthy or otherwise. Still, he is a republican, so perhaps he is at least considering allowing President Bush to appoint his replacement sometime in the next three years? We can only hope so.

BTW, the exact ages of the various Supreme Court Justices can be obtained by checking here.

Re: They have convinced no one who does not own at least one Che Guevara T-Shirt that he should not be confirmed.

They didn't even convince those guys because they were already convinced of it the moment Bush nominated the man.

Ginsburg is... reportedly very healthy

Depends on what the meaning of "cancer" is.

Sorry for posting this here, but you seemed genuinely interested and Moe's turned off comments in that thread. I think this is a reasonable summary of the discharge of openly gay Arab and Farsi translators.

First, it will be hard for the dems to gain at all. They have a reasonable shot at PA. But that is about it. They have an outside chance at MT, but they just are not going to have any chance at any other GOP seat (unless Chafee loses the primary). The GOP on the other hand is likely to pick up MN and MD and has an outside chance at NJ. If I had to guess, at this point, PA, MD, and MN switch parties meaning GOP +1.

Kennedy won't go. More likely Scalia goes next year. Statisics say that at least one of Stevens of Ginsburg will go this year or next as well. If I had to guess, I would say Stevens retires in May and Ginsburg goes next year as well.

Hmmm.

Frankly I think the Democrats are dragging this out so to create future opportunities to describe Alito and this lengthy confirmation process in unflattering terms.

I don't know about everyone else, but I see a lot of Dem senators touting the line that the filibuster will fail but they'll go ahead and vote no on cloture anyway.  I think something is up.

I don't think that a filibuster will work, but I am beginning to believe that the Dems want Frist to go constitutional (nuclear in their minds).  They will then try to paint this as "another Republican abuse of power," like the NSA program and the Abramoff mess.  They build thier case on this against "one party rule."  It might be the only shot they have in the 06 elections.  

The Dems know they are going to lose on Alito one way or another.  They just may think they can spoil the Republican victory by forcing them to change the rules to get it.

"Please, Br'r Fox, please don't throw me in that briar patch!" -- Br'r Rabbit.

I've smelled a rat for a week now...  

The Republicans could very well use the same scenario for their advantage: after all, they do have a majority already on record as supporting Alito's confirmation; setting off the nuclear option lets them say "we have tried time and again to govern reasonably, but the Democrats are nothing but obstructionists, so we did what we had to do to let the majority govern."

Personally, I think setting it off now means we don't have to have this fight again when Bush is appointing say Breyer's successor and the Democrats really get riled up.

If Chafee doesn't vote to confirm Alito, all bets are off for supporting him.  If he can't even be with us for a majority supported, well qualified nominee to the Supreme Court, then he ain't worth nothin', IMO.

I say go nuclear, unclog the backlog of lower court nominees, and let the chips fall where they may come November. That would be progress in my book.

It topped 50% today.  This is up from 44% a week ago.  Hope it holds.

Not only do we have bi-partisan Senate support, valid and cognizant quotes from Byrd, majority voter support, we also have quotes from Ds that either they disapprove (Obama) or won't support (Feinstein) a filibuster and then flipping and voting against cloture due to the demands of Insaniacs.

It's got to be a net plus for Rs, even if we have to nuke 'em.

They may be using the filibuster, or the threat of a filibuster, just for delaying tactics, to give themselves cover in a primary, or to slime Alito later, but they are making a serious mistake in wasting their biggest gun now.

There are a limited number of times that they can run squealing and screaming to the cameras about that divisive, right-wing maniac that the President nominated before the charge carries no weight at all.

As a matter of fact, I posit that they have already shot it too many times.  Right now, they are unable to understand why their accusations didn't swing public opinion against Alito (outside the fact that they were lies) in spite of days of publicized hearings.  They may be blaming it on Martha's tears, but before she cried, America had already decided to support him.

The fact is, they have accused so many R nominees of being 'outside the mainstream' that the American public no longer takes their accusations seriously.

You are acting like going nuclear is a sure thing.  It isn't.  And I'm not at all sure that the perception of that action will be positive to Rs.

I think a filibuster would certainly invoke the constitutional option.  BUT, I don't think it would happen today.  I think they will take a few days, file another cloture motion and start harping on it first.  "They said no to a filibuster then suddly changed their minds."  "They had their own members saying it was unwise."  "Bob Byrd said it's disgraceful." Etc. etc.

After that then you see where things lie on the second go - if it's still holding with say 57-59 cloture votes at the end of the week (I think that's when you'd wind up with a second vote) then you go nuclear.  Also gives time to insure that the cats are all well-herded on constitutional option.

There is no way that Frist waits this one out.

He's waited too long and Bush wants Alito there for the ceremony tommorrow night.

I don't think that would be wise (from the POV of confirming Alito).  Three to four days of an empowered barrage from the Kossocks will only serve to weaken the nuclear option, not make it more likely.

With "the Gang" meeting later - anybody heard from "The MAverick" on whether he sees "extraordinary circumstances"?  He's the ringleader, and if he's saying it's not extraordinary I think you will have the constitutional option.

Then again, with Byrd and Nelson (both gang members) on board for confirmation, how could this really be extraordinary?

We only need 2 of them to ditch the Gang and vote constitutional option to uphold any parliamentary ruling by Cheney.

it will be a sure thing.

Think McCain can make a plausible run for the Republican nomination if he opposes confirming Alito? Because that's how any opponent is going to paint him in the primaries if he doesn't vote for the Constitutional/Nuclear option.

Think the majority of the Republican members of the Gang of 14 can win their primaries if they vote against confirming Alito?

I don't. Yeah, maybe Chafee or Snow get by, but most of the "moderates" go down. And nothing will focus their minds like the prospect of losing an election.

today before the cloture vote, now might be a good time to make a few phone calls and encourage them to uphold their end of the deal.

There are no extraordinary circumstances with Samuel Alito and he should get a fair up or down vote.  End of discussion.  And if cloture fails, then this R gang of 7 should be prepared to fall in lockstep with the rest of the republican caucus and nuke 'em 'til they glow.

For the R's-

McCain, Graham, Warner, Snowe, Collins, DeWine, and good ole Lincoln Chafee.

For the D's-

Lieberman, byrd, NE Nelson, Landrieu, Inouye, Pryor, and Slazar

For those of you in Colorado, I'd lean especially hard on Ken Salazar.  The man is nothing but a back stabbing liar.  Let him know of your displeasure regarding his broken campaign promises and his absolute disregard for his participation in this so-called deal.

She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999, but it was caught at an early stage and it now appears to be in remission. As I said, overall her health is good, and I am glad for her, even if that means Bush wont get to replace her.

I rather think your analysis is a bit optimistic. All of the states you're projecting to go GOP this November were blue states last election. I rather think NJ is our best chance, since voters there are bound to get sick of Dem control sometime. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.

As for your judicial projections, do you really think Scalia is ready for retirement? He is 69, but a very active man at 69. He still plays tennis, goes hunting, etc. I rather hope he sticks around another ten years or so, and I'd be surprised if he doesn't last on the court till age 75. I wouldn't be surprised if Stevens fulfills your wish (and mine) and quits, but I'd be very surprised if Ginsburg does.

for the clarification.  I was not aware that she was in remission.

Shouldn't the brain-trust that is the G-14 be wrapping-up their pre-cloture seance right about now?

And therefore should we not expect any minute now to witness the spectacle of them trampling each other in pursuit of the nearest TV camera and/or microphone and/or person with a spiral-bound notepad?

Just askin'.

laugh of the day.

Thanks!

Teddy's blathering spittle is all over the inside of my TV.  Now how am I going to get this off?  ;-)

Vote on cloture motion is being taken as we speak.

And if the filibuster is reformed, the dimohacks will use that later in spades. Franly, the threat of using it is going to give them cover to restrict filibuster severely next time it is convenient for them to do so, so we might as well reform it now when it helps us the most.

Anybody paying close enough attention to tell how it's progressing?  It can be hard since C-Span 2 doesn't have the tote board the way C-Span does for the House.

36 Ayes and less than 10 Noes

Nelson (FL)

Chafee

Carper (I think I heard it)

The list the Clerk just read had way more Aye's than nay's, but a lot of Senators hadn't voted yet. I had been waiting to hear how my Senator was voting, they read Rockefellers name as an Aye (that surprised me, I had written him twice, but didn't have a good feeling about him). The ones voting now are almost all Aye's.

The Dems have a big block of Senators who come consecutively in the alphabet so they can rack up a lot of votes quickly.

That's going to be 55 Rs.  5 Ds seals it.

Nos

Obama

Jeffords

Biden

Dayton

Menendez

Ayes

Bingaman

Landrieu

Inouye

Johnson

as of right now.

Nos

Schumer

Ayes

Dorgan

Rockfeller

Mikulski

So far 18 nos with Schumer

for once.

Votes Aye on cloture.

as the day that Barack "Mr. Moderate" Obama officially dropped his moderate moniker and joined the leftist moonbats.  

Nos

Reed

Ayes

Salazar

Lincoln

Nelson (NE)

Baucus

it's like 50-17 or so.

Juat need 2 more to get to my prediction.

Oops-now we are at 19, only 1 more.

They appear to be well past the 60 mark at this point.

Add Reed (RI) to the No pile - 19 total.

Anybody else looking to sign up for the "Loony Left Membership Card"?

Levin No - that's 20.

MN has a popular R governor and a decent candidate already lined up. Some of the Democrat contenders would be extremely weak... how hard of a fight it will be depends on who they pick. It is winable no matter who they decide on.

More moonbats than I thought.

Seems as the gang has held though.

The Illinois GOP is about as disfunctional as mine - in Kerryville.

Sad, but true, how far the Party of Lincoln has fallen in the Land of Lincoln.

Nos

Clinton

Mikulski (I was wrong upthread)

Murray

Bayh

Lautenberg

Ayes

Levin

Leiberman

Cantwell

So much for his running scared of Markos Moulitsas in the primary?

Clinton

Mikulski

Lautenberg

Cantwell voted Aye.

Your senators do not even think that one of your own deserves a vote on the Senate floor.

Unbelievable.

Redstaters, it's time to get busy in New Jersey.  They deserve better than what they have.

Rossi effect and well she should be.

Unless he changed his vote, he voted No.

Kohl voted Aye.

currently.  Anybody have a different count?

He voted Aye then immediately changed his vote to No.

I count six Democrats voting for cloture.  That should do it.

Did Reid just vote for cloture before he voted against it?  :)

That's the way the clerk read it, anyways.

Frist voted, too, so it must be over now, since he'll usually vote No if it fails, in order to be able to bring it up again later.

the MSM will continue to insist that Evan Bayh is a "reasonable moderate" if he runs for the Big Office in 2008.

Joke.

Should be 74 or 75 in favor.  Ensign not voting, and I don't know if there's anybody else left outstanding.

Nos

Reid

Levin (I got that wrong upthread to0)

Ayes

Kohl

Byrd

Nos are at about 25 including both NJ Senators

They announced Reid as an aye, then as a no.  I don't know what that means.

Hilarious!

along with Obama's moderate label.  And, Hillary's as well.

I'm sorry, if you cast a "no" vote on cloture, you are nothing but a certifiable moonbat that has sold out to NARAL and NOW.  And the American public needs to know your true colors.

Frist would just change his vote just before the chair closed the vote if it was going to fail.  He does it all the time.

Could one of the political junkies explain to me the background behind voting against a measure so it can come back up again? Kinda puzzled by this.

Nos

Ayes

Akaka

If the Maj. Leader votes against a measure he/she may bring it up again in the future for another vote.  Simply a procedural manuever.

So many posts that read "NO MORE" and "NEVER AGAIN"

There are some ticked off lefties over at casa del Kos.  Heh.

but so far I count 72 ayes.

In order to resurrect something you must move for Reconsideration.  However, only a member who voted with the winning side can make such a motion.  Therefore, on a cloture vote that fails, you need one of the No voters to make the motion - hence Frist, as the leader, insures that there is someone on the winning side who can make the motion when they decide to bring it back.

is at 25.  I chose to count those because then I wouldn't have to count so high.  :)

When the site crashed a minute ago, I headed over kos for a gander.

Woo-eee, them's some not so happy campers.  Heh!

under traditional parliamentary rules only a member voting with a prevailing side can ask for reconsideration.  That's why you change your vote to be on the "winning" side so that you can move to reconsider.

reconsider - Senate rules permit one motion to reconsider any question decided by vote, if offered by a Senator who voted on the winning side. Normally a supporter of the outcome immediately moves to reconsider the vote, and the same Senator or another immediately moves to table this motion, thus securing the outcome of the vote.

They probably misrecorded the vote. It happens all the time.

And seriously, the Kerry flip-flop jokes are getting incredibly old.

It's so much fun to be a conservative today.  Reminds me of Nov. 04.  Cruising the lib blogs is like eating at Outback ... I couldn't enjoy it more.  They're ready to eat their own.  Anybody who doesn't tow the Lib Line is getting f-bombs dropped on them by the dozen.  This battle is over.  The war goes on!

Somebody's in a little snit because they lost.

Give or take 2.

I don't know who is left or how long.

Nor I, but they're holding the vote open so somebody must be "on his way."

He's incredible, in the strict sense of the term.

Dude, they even broke out the C-bombs, and I'm not talking about "Cluster."

Done boys and girls!

Sorry if it offends you, but the Kerry flip-flop jokes are never old because Kerry simply refuses to go-away.

And yes, it was probably a simple clerical error by some overworked GS-09 who has to sit in the Senate chamber and listen to these mental giants drink their own bathwater all day, perfectly understandable - but it is still funny.

The vote is still open.  When the chair announces the result I'll celebrate cloTure (not Closure).

We are well over 70 votes for cloture now.

Say hello to Justice Alito.  :)

So who is missing?

72-25

Cloture invoked.

for the Hallelujah Chorus!

Ahhhhhhhhh..... it's like Christmas in January.

Just think, only 4 more leftist idealogues and a sanctimonious self-righteous goat to go.

I followed Augustine's sympathy link to Kos, but the site is down for maintenance.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

Nos

Aye

Graham (R)

That's it.  72-25.  Done.

swinging!  That was money well spent.  I'm lovin this junior senator from my beloved SC more everyday.

out donning their sackcloth and ashes.  Heh!

Amazing how whiny they are when the democratic process fails them, isn't it?

Anyway, today may just be a red-letter day for America as the far-left starts its defection from the Democratic party they thought they owned when Howard Dean was elected DNC chair.

I am not counting Chafee (of course)or the Maine twins.

I count 5 dems for confirmation.  Byrd, NE Nelson, Conrad, Johnson, and Dorgan.

Am I missing anyone?  

That gets us at 57.  Enough to put the kos kids completely over the edge.

Shakespeare.  And quite poorly I might add.

And with her taking the floor, I'm off to clean toilets.  That seems a bit more appealing than listening to her blather on.

Not voting: Ensign (R), Hagel (R) and Harkin (D)

Cloture is invoked......Alito gets confirmed rather easily, Bush JA goes to 50% in the latest Rasmussen, with the SOTU to come.

Tsk tsk, must be a bad time to be one of the Kos Kidz

DU is also jammed-up. I can hear the crying and screaming and whining all the way to here in Cleveland.

Election Year.

Harkin was supposed to vote "Present".

And we all know about Ensign's accident.

But what's Hagel's excuse?!

(And, yeah - I'm just cynical enough to believe he ducked the vote so he wouldn't have to vote on the Cloture motion...)

From Bayh's office.

"With a better, more enlightening confirmation process, I would perhaps have reached a different conclusion.  Unfortunately, the confirmation process itself is another example of how Washington is broken. It's become a process where the nominees come before the Committee and say as little as possible or are evasive to avoid saying anything controversial. It's something that must be changed if the Senate is to discharge its obligation to "advise and consent" rather than the partisan Kabuki theater we now must endure."

Why do you think that's the case, Senator? Because of those who pander first to partisans, who sacrifice tradition and the Constitution for their narrow political self-interest?

P.S. Couldn't link from his Senate webpage. The Senate site is engaging in its own filibuster, it appears.

Go over to the Kos Koolaid Kids and read how they are dropping out of the DNC and will work to toss out the reasoinable dems who voted for cloture.

Every other poster is claiming how they will see that no money goes to the DNc senatorial effort.

I am going to turn on even more $ for the RNC now.

We have the right President, we are winning the GWOT, we have a great economy, and America is retreating form the infected fever swamps.

The world is a pretty nice place.

From:

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2006/1/30/16466/0666/376#376

ATTENTION WRIST SLITTERS!

PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER.

Freepers would love to drag this thread all over the Free Republic to energize thier base.

"Check out the feeding frenzy over on Kos" snicker snicker...

You people to hold it together, buck up and prepare for more battles to come. You know those emeffin' battles are on the horizon.

Now is the time to set up calling trees, email chains, and funding strategies to get the local population behind us in every city in every state of the nation.

People don't like to associate with people who act like losers, so quit acting like losers okay!

The Cape Cod Orca probably spilled his drink in the server!

72-25. Our long national nightmare is over.

A distinguished occasion for a first post at Red State. :)

Trying to score a TV appearance fix. It has been over 24 hours. I am sure he was getting the shakes.

2 Republican's didnt even vote (one with 110% excuse)... Aye's don't matter?

I guess 41 nays is still the important count and they won't pay attention to that.

and that didn't happen much either.

What they will do is abandon the DNC and give just to specific candidates. I heard on the radio that the DNC is already bankrupt 30 days into the new year for 2006 and they will be going after Dean's head soon. He could get replaced soon.

This works in our favor (except for the losing the Dean part). They will throw money away in Primary fights to get their specific Moonbats on the ticket, support Independants and give money to Moonbats who wouldn't lose anyway. On paper, that leaves the middle road Dem's with less money to fend of the advances of GOP candidates and sets up extreme left wing candidates in purple states.

The only hope they have is that George Soros gives em another wad of cash.... probably wont see that until 2008.

Rove will just unleash a shiny new object to grab their attention. Maybe some more revelations about NSA wiretaps.

Soros is fixing to become the lefties Abrahamoff.

his money has distorted this thing for years, shoving through McCain-Feingold, fueling the egos of extremists like Kos, and drowning out the moderates in the DNC.

hasn't made her decision yet. She's running out of time here! But she did give a nice little "filibusters are dumb" comment.

"While I have not made any decision yet on an up-or-down vote on the nominee itself, I find it regrettable that there are those who are trying to resurrect a filibuster even as there is clearly nothing in the record that constitutes extraordinary circumstances. This unfortunate effort only serves to further politicize and polarize this process when this should be a time of careful deliberation based on the facts of the nominee's record and testimony."

The esteemed junior Senator from my fair state just did a huge 180.  Yesterday he takes the high road and chides his colleagues for thinking about a filibuster and today he joins the lunatic fringe voting no on cloture.  Maybe he realized by sounding thoughtful and intelligent yesterday that he'd blow any chance of being Hillary's running mate.  Of course, anyone would sound thoughtful and intelligent when paired with the senior senator from Illinois.

to match Kerry being a sock puppet for Ted.

Here are the names of the gang-

For the R's-

McCain, Graham, Warner, Snowe, Collins, DeWine, and good ole Lincoln Chafee.

For the D's-

Lieberman, byrd, NE Nelson, Landrieu, Inouye, Pryor, and Salazar

For confirmation the other Maine twin has yet to decide.

I too would prefer it if we could replace RBG immediately but I would not wish poor health, much less cancer, on anyone.  I am truly happy for her if it is in remission and I hope that she never has a relapse.

She'll step down when she's ready and we can deal with it then.

I'd like to point out that all the members of the Democrat side of the "Gang of 14" seem to have kept their side of the bargain thus far. I am under no illusions about how long it can hold. HOWEVER, it is fair to note that it has held long enough to get two conservatives safely into the Supreme Court.

No matter how you slice it, that is a huge boon to conservatives and the GOP. Conversely, the Dems have gained nothing of any real value from the agreement except the theoretical right to filibuster under "extreme circumstances." Having established beyond question that having a nominee who is a member of the Federalist Society and whose nickname is "Scalito" does not constitute "extreme circumstances," it is difficult to see how conservatives gave up anything important in the bargain.

What I'm driving at is this: those of you who were ready to jump ship after the GOP "Gang of 7" brokered a deal (I seem to recall some people saying things like "McCain is dead to me," etc.) were wrong, plain and simple. As conservatives, we got everything we wanted from the "Gang of 14" deal, and we gave up almost nothing. Correction. We gave up NOTHING.

we are at 58 for confirmation as long as one of the dems doesn't defect over night.  Even if Snowe votes to confirm, that's still only 59 votes.

That is just poetic justice if this is the way the final vote tally comes down.  An overall shame, because he deserves so much more, but just priceless for the reaction it will have over in kosville.

Salazar was looking like he would renig on the deal last week.  Despite him voting for cloture, he still needs to be taken out when he is up for re-election.  Colorado deserves better than him.

And we did give up some conservative circuit court judges.  I can't remember which ones exactly, but a few were thrown under the bus.

Personally, I'd almost like to see everything go nuclear.  We are going to see this same drama come up over and over again for every single person Bush nominates.  At least with the nuke, the drama would not be able to be front and center so much.

It is changed.

The DNC coffers are empty, the Dem base is sick of their party and the idiot moveon.org types are sinking millions into loser fights.  Gore 2000.  Kerry 2004.  Defeat Alito 2006.  What's next.  Sheehan 2006?

very loving, caring people over there

I sure hope we don't sound that way when things don't go our way.