You are correct. There was no way to end debate. I am not even arguing that the cloture rule was bad. It just pisses me off that the Democrats are whining now when they have done what they damn well pleased in the past.
The democrats are the ones that have brought the process of ending a filibuster into the rules. Then they lowered the number necessary to bring cloture and now are objecting to a futher lowering of that number to a majority for judicial nominees...
Yep they are whining and will lose this one at some point. I think Sen. Frist needs to go ahead and get the nominees on the floor for debate so that this thing can be taken care of prior to a SCOTUS nominee becoming involved. This entire process also helps the democrats when and if they ever become a simple majority in the Senate again. It cuts both ways and is the way it should be.
The Republicans have basically sided with the idea that a nominee once out of committee should be entitled to a up/down vote. Thus outside of the bipartisan Fortas filibuster there haven't been filibusters of judicial appointments.