So, the Dems retreat to regroup; we get three of our most conservative nominees; and we all live to fight another day. That's the bottom line.
wussie
:-) I'm kidding, smile please!
That the Dems would vote for cloture to avoid a showdown vote on the nuclear option has been obvious to me for a long time and I have voiced that opinion in many threads.
I think McCain has helped the Dems save face and that is about all. I don't know much about the two sacrificial lambs but I hear they might not have made it anyway. In any case the Pubbies won and the Dems lost. If it wasn't for McCain et al then it would have been a complete and humiliating defeat for Reid and the Dems. He saved them from that. Freepers will never forgive him. In my case, anyone on that stage is ON MY BLACKLIST FOREVER. We won by 3 points when we were a 4 touchdown favorite and way ahead in the 4th quarter.
The behavior of the "Suckup Six" is inexcuseable and unacceptable.
There is much more to it than that. Living to fight another day is fine when you are the one that is a certain loser. If we had a substantial probability of winning, we have lost by "compromising". We have lost in a major way.
The Dims are emboldened, convinced (correctly so) that the senate pubs have no stomach for hand to hand combat, or taking casualties. They called our bluff...and we wavered. Next time they will be even less likely to believe the pubs will follow through.
Sometimes you have to do something because it must be done. So, we get a few nominees through, temporarily. That is not really the point now. It's the damage to us, the supporters, that matters. Again, so we get a *few* nominees through at present. How does that compare with the lost support, votes, money and sweat that will no longer come from a LOT of the faithful?
Sometimes the real issue is who is in charge; not just getting along. The senate pubs have sown the seeds of much bigger problems from the Dims by blinking now. Empty threats will come back to haunt the pubs in a godawful way. Guaranteed.
I have been betrayed by a cheating spouse for the last time. No mas, no mas.
The Democrats want to forestall until the latest possible moment the quite proper action by the Republicans to eliminate the Democrats latest unconstitutional power grab from the Republicans. It's the old Fabian legal tactic of agitate, delay, and wait for the opponents resolve to waiver. They need this power to scuttle Bush's judicial nominees, which for the Democrats is the Holy Grail of political power and just about the only game left for them as the electorate is increasingly rejecting their agenda (when that agenda is sufficiently clear to voters)
The fact that the Republicans wouldn't stand together today has given the Democrats a win. There is no other way to look at this except as a significant defeat for the Republicans. They simply didn't "strike while the iron is hot" so to speak. Later, when the Democrats mount their next major attack (against the SCOTUS nominations) we will find ourselves right back in the thick of it again, with perhaps less power on our side. This WILL happen, as IMO the current "controversy" about these appellate judges has been merely a warm-up to the SCOTUS battle yet to come.
It seems to me ironic that, when in the minority, the Democrats still command more power than the Republican majority. This to me is more revealing about the Republicans than the Democrats.