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Unfortunately, this confirms what I feared, which was that we NEVER had a solid 51 votes. I will be calling DeWhine's office, and telling him that I expect action on these, and while I can't vote against him this year, I can work like hell to derail his son's congressional seat.

I will be calling DeWhine's office, and telling him that I expect action on these, and while I can't vote against him this year, I can work like hell to derail his son's congressional seat.

http://www.gobrinkman.com/ for those of like mind, State rep. Tom Brinkman for Congress running against Pat DeWine in the primary

I agree: it sounds like Frist was really letting it all hang out, and his belief that he had the 50 votes he needed was razor thin. We must get a few more conservative Senators for him to work with - bt it seems he's done the best he can with what we've elected for him. Look - the long and short of his play now is that these three "Neanderthal" judges - "extreme right wing conservatives" - are now going to at long last get their floor vote. That will change the terms of the "extreme" debate in the President's favor.

I will now finally opine on this: (since I've listened to this interview a second time) that I will not disagree with Graham, though I'm still pretty disappointed. He considered suing the Senate over whether there was a filibuster ability two years ago. I think he's really serious about this issue and finding a way to get every nominee an up or down on the floor, and to tell you the truth, he is the ONLY person I've yet heard make such a blanket statement as "There are Five Solid NO's" ... And, let me state further, that I have not heard Frist, or ANYBODY else say otherwise.

This was going to be a real close vote. Assuming Graham's on a Yes... Which conservative here is willing to take the chance of this vote failing when, after Frist and Bush twist arms and get DeWine or say, Collins on board --- and then confidently take the vote :::::: Depend on SPECTRE's vote !!!??? and possibly Voinovich? and who else was shaky here? Who here called all of them and polled them? Frist HOPED he had their vote, it sounds like... maybe he did... it is possible he really did... would YOU trust them? (Rhetorical question to others, not to you, LS)

I confidently assert that Graham had a far better poll than anybody I have heard of --- only Frist and the R leadership had as good a pulse as Graham did. If he KNOWS this was hanging on a 50-50 at BEST - I will give him his right to vote his conscience as frankly I don't trust some of those others.

Unlike most Americans, I do not expect a representative I voted for to vote lockstep with me in legislation. I ask them to vote as THEY see best in a given situation, not as I see it. I will and do express my opinion to them, but at times I might be wrong. I EXPECT my professional representative, who has a staff to research things, to have a somewhat better handle on the situation than I do. This is why I will always support my elected representative, President Bush, even should he choose differently than I would on certain issues.

Graham clearly thought hard about this. I respect him and his vote here, though I disagree with him here.

I will not say the same about McCain, who I believe has other motivations.