Any DC Chapter Freepers care to weigh in? I'm speculating the "Constitutional Option" has only been postponed. Read my previous replies.
I think Frist's words yesterday are in response to the angry calls overwhelming the Capitol switchboard. Of course we will all have to wait and see, but I don't have much confidence that "nuclear" will be used if the Dems renege on the deal.
P.S. There never should have been a deal in the first place. Frist should have used the power of his leadership position to hold his party together; i.e., threats of loss of funding for pork projects in the squishes' districts, etc.
But I know nothing of the machinations of being a politician.
If my team of 55 players looses because seven players gave away the game to the opponents, it wouldn't make sense for me to blame the whole team. Blame the seven, not the players or team captain who played their hardest to win.
At this stage, and despite the seven turncoats, only time will tell who will win.
The panel on Brit Hume's Special Report had an interesting disagreement last night.
Morton Kondracke claims that the GOP won because the Dem seven let in the three judges painted as "most extreme" by Dems. Therefore, "extraordinary circumstances" will not apply to other pending judicial nominations and those Dem seven will not filibuster at least until a liberal Supreme Court Justice must be replaced. Kondracke thinks that the deal will get up or down votes for all judges until a liberal Supreme Court Justice needs replacing. This is a ceasefire that works to the GOP benefit for the time being, per his thinking.
Charles Krauthammer has a much different take. He said that pending judicial nominees, other than the three guaranteed a vote, have been thrown off the train. Those other pending nominees will be filibustered with the Dem seven backing the filibusters. Kondracke thinks otherwise.
If Kondracke is right, the Constitutional option is not needed until a liberal SC Justice needs replacing. Judicial nominees will not be filibustered by 40 or more Dems until that day.
I hope that Kondracke is right, but I fear that Krauthammer is right. Probably 6 to 10 Senators in each party don't even know for sure how they are going to behave in the future when these issues resurface. Their future decisions will determine which side is victorious.
The Constitutional option should have already been implemented, but for the seven GOP weak sisters. At least part of the blame goes to those who failed to impress those seven with the need to go Constitutional.
Without intending to reference any particular FReeper as having not done enough, many FReepers who now denounce ALL the Republicans as traitors or spineless:
never lifted a finger in the judicial nominations fight
never showed up for the March for Justice II
never contributed to the cost of it
never wrote to their Senators
never called their Senators' offices
never wrote to their local newspapers
never took a single tangible action to advance the judicial nomination process.
Those FReepers (not you, but they know who they are) should look into a mirror if they want to blame someone for the problems in getting the Const. option through.