I will be very curious to see what we got in this deal. My take on this deal after thinking about it is:
1.If we got 3 out of 10 judges, it is a bad deal. If we end up with 6 or 7 of the 10 it will could be an ok deal. The six or seven would be Owens, Johnson, Prior, McKeague, Griffen, Estada and maybe another. Five is the minimum that had better get through. If I were Bush, I would reappoint all of them since the Dims have promised not to filibuster any new appointments.
2. If there is no filibuster of Bush Supreme Court nominees or any other appeals court nominees for the rest of the 109th Congress it is potentially a decent deal.
3. If the GOP filibusters the next Ruth Ginsburg type nominee of a Dim president and AS THEY HAVE NOW IMPLICITLY PROMISE TO DO McCain, Snowe, Dewine, Collins, Warner, L. Graham etc IF THEY ARE AROUND STILL SUPPORT SUCH A FILIBUSTER, then this is potentially a good deal. I hope McCain, etal understand that they have IMPLICITLY PROMISED to back a filibuster of any radical Dim nominess by signing on to this compromise.
If we get these three things, then the deal is not such a bad deal. But the GOP is now required to filibuster the next radical Dim appointee whether that is in 2009 or 2013 or whenever and the signatories of this agreement NEED TO BE MADE TO UNDERSTAND THEY HAVE PROMISED US TO SUPPORT SUCH A FILIBUSTER.
Here's my take:
Extraordinary circumstances = pro life; pro gun ownership
extreme = a trail (however short) of conservative judicial opinions;
Acceptable attributes: pro abortion; gay rights and anti 2nd Amendment
"1.If we got 3 out of 10 judges, it is a bad deal. If we end up with 6 or 7 of the 10 it will could be an ok deal."
We got at least 6. Reid was quoted as predicting that the 3 Michigan nominees to the sixth circuit would be easily approved. They've been stalled for years now by the blue slip exercised by Michigan's senators, so it's clear that these 3 Michigan nominees were an unspoken part of the deal.
So the 6th circuit court of appeals just became a strongly conservative court overnight.
Furthermore, Lindsay said tonight to Chris Matthews, that the cabal of 14 will get together whenever Bush submits a nominee... so that "they" can decide for the other 86.
Now, THAT'S a power grab, and now, what damn use is the Senate's Judiciary Committee?
Have politicians ever been known to break a promise?
Republicans got nothing from this deal that they couldn't have gotten by cutting off the filibuster. This was no horse trade -- it was a give away.