[ssdb]

What are the lessons of the Estrada nomination and withdrawal?

As far as republicans are concerned, if there's no money in it it's not worth fighting for.

[pogo101]

Maybe ... but I have hope that, if

1. Bush wins in '04;
2. The GOP keeps the Senate in '04; but
3. The GOP DOESN'T pick up enough seats to make judicial nominations filibuster-proof (i.e., about a majority of 57-43 or so),

then

we may well see Senate Republicans "go nuclear" VERY EARLY in '05. WHAMMO -- dozens of confirmations brought en masse to the floor at once; cloture vote fails to get 60 votes, but it gets 51 or more; Dick Cheney, in his seat as President of the Senate, nonetheless declares the motion for cloture successful; Democrats appeal that ruling, which needs a majority to be sustained; and they fail on the same 50-something to 40-something vote;

then the confirmations themselves get rammed through with the same vote.

Yeah, yeah, I know all the stories about a "nuclear winter" in Senate relations after this happens. So effing what??