It is the DEMs who caved. They always could, by voting to vote on the nomination. THey needed this smoke and mirors to distract from the fact that they caved.
All of the nominees are either on the Senate Calendar, or in the Judiciary Committee. They aren't going to "poof" disappear. The people will see how these nominations are handled. So will the WH ;-)
That's exactly right. Reid saw he was going to lose the nuke vote. He knew no amount of media bias would save them once the American people saw the senate taking votes on the nominees. When it became clear Frist was going to call the vote, Reid blinked.