Tim Grieve (Salon): Done deal -- for now

[Jack Rabbit]

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Dated Tuesday Many 24

Done deal -- for now
The "Group of 14" moderates defuse the nuclear option, but who really wins and loses in the filibuster compromise? And how close are we to the next showdown?
By Tim Grieve

Rejecting the plans of their leaders and the demands of the religious right, seven Republican senators joined seven Democrats Monday night in a last-minute agreement to avert the nuclear option and preserve, at least in theory, the Democrats' right to filibuster future judicial nominees. The war over judicial nominees isn't over; it may well explode again this summer, when George W. Bush will almost certainly have a chance to nominate a Supreme Court justice. But Round 1 is done, and it goes to Senate tradition, the storied but seldom seen collegiality among senators -- and to the Democrats.

At a press conference just after the deal was announced, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid -- who had repeatedly begged "responsible Republicans" to work with Democrats on a compromise -- said the agreement was "really good news for every American." Reid noted that he'd proposed similar deals to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist over the last few weeks, but that the Republican leader had rejected them each time.

Frist himself tried to put the best face on things Monday night. Just a few hours after declaring that senators had a "constitutional responsibility" to provide up-or-down floor votes for every judge the president nominates, Frist struggled to explain how an agreement that will deny floor votes to two long-stalled Bush nominees might be spun as a victory for the Republican leadership. It didn't work, and Frist seemed to know it. After a brief floor speech and a hand-shaking photo op with Harry Reid, Frist all but raced out of the Capitol as he said, over and over, "Let's move forward." As Frist stepped outside and toward a waiting car, his press secretary, Amy Call, physically held a Capitol door closed to keep reporters from following him.

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