"extraordinary circumstances"=dim doublespeak for:
"We don't like him/her."
Turn out the lights, shoo the fat lady out the door.
Thanks to McCain & Co., it was over before it began. The DemocRodents can still 'Bork' anyone that doesn't pass their litmus test. (In other words, any conservative appointment.)
It was over when the the kleagle from W. VA started out with, "I knew Benjamin Franklin . . ."
"Thanks to McCain & Co., it was over before it began."
No.
You are letting the Republican Party off far too easily.
48 other Republicans, including the Senate Majority Leader, did NOT agree to that deal. THERE IS NO DEAL unless the Republican Party leadership GOES ALONG WITH IT.
Frist can kill this deal right now.
All he needs to do is to say "We said all 10 get a vote, and all 10 shall have a vote", and then nominate Saad BEFORE debating and passing the other three. Force the confrontation to a head right not. Destroy the "compromise" that 7/8th of Republican Senators did not sign onto. This puts the 7 who did in a position: they can vote for the DEMOCRATS' filibuster and then against the Republicans' nuclear option, or they can cave again.
One or two Republican Senators (McCain is a good choice) who vote against the nuclear option and FOR the Democratic filibuster can be expelled from the Republican caucus.
Everyone is focusing on the RINOs here, because they struck a "deal". But they are only 0ne-eighth of the Republican caucus. THERE IS NO DEAL unless the Republican caucus ACCEPTS the deal, and if they do, they become complicit with McCain and just as guilty.
My point is that now is not the time for pro-life and pro-judicial restraint Republicans to start pretending that it was the RINO sliver that cost them. This is a "Read my lips" moment. The RINOs have proven they are spineless by cutting a deal. But do they have the spine to ALL stick with the deal if the other 48 Republicans move ahead and press forward on all the nominees, making it clear that Republicans who vote for the Democrat position will lose positions and may be expelled from the caucus.
Frist still has the power to force the issue.
If he doesn't, he is no different than George H W Bush signing the tax hike instead of vetoing it.
What happened when Bush 41 did that was that fiscal Republicans walked away for an election. Clinton won, yes, but the tax appeasers were blown out of the Republican Party, and an election later came the Gingrich Revolution, and no more waffling on taxes.
This is the moment for the pro-life right. The Republicans in the Senate, led by Frist, can still force the issue. If they don't, THEY, and not just McCain, are responsible for allowing this "deal" becoming policy.