[holdonnow]

Noiminating conservative judges isn't the same as getting them confirmed. The new tone prevents Bush from pushing these candidates through -- the so-called "nuclear" option. I'm told Bill Frist won't push because Bush doesn't want the Senate's legislative "work" to be hindered.

[Diddle E. Squat]

But is Bush gambling for a larger win in 2004, with Senate gains, and thus a clear mandate from which to then push through a host of conservative judges, including likely 3 USSC appointments, along with more conservative reforms in areas beyond the courts(though admittedly such a strategy IS a gamble).

[Southack]

"Noiminating conservative judges isn't the same as getting them confirmed. The new tone prevents Bush from pushing these candidates through -- the so-called "nuclear" option. I'm told Bill Frist won't push because Bush doesn't want the Senate's legislative "work" to be hindered."

You're not from the South, are you?!

The "new tone" only goes so far. After that, Southernors are going to remember what the Democrats did to Lott, and to Bush re: the "16 words", and what they did to Justice Thomas (Jill Abramson just took over as the freaking ombudsman of the NY Times after writing that damnable hit-piece of a book against him "The Selling of Clarence Thomas" or some such title), and what they did to Estrada, Owens, and Pryor (especially to Pryor, as he honestly answered all of their questions, which they claimed was their reason for dissent on Estrada).

Frist will hammer the Democrats with a 24/7 filibuster as soon as all important legislation is out of the way.

Which will probably be by late October or early November.

But it will be done. It just won't be done imprudently. On the other hand, it will be done with more strategic and tactical sense than even Patton could muster ripping through France.

And just like has happened in Texas with Democrats going from the majority party pre-Bush to the minority party today, so too will the Democrats witness political prize after prize fall to Bush in Washington, even as they continue to call him an idiot, a cowboy, and unsophisticated.