The bar has been set with Owen, Brown, and Pryor

[many a good man]

Only those nominees MORE radical than these three can be considered "extraordinary."

They will feed a few theocrats to the lions in the colsseum and march the corporatists through the back door.

We get to retain our democracy in exchange for continuing control of govt by the corporatists. The people still have a chance. We must lead our leaders. Democracy requires the participation of the People. If the people of this country do not fulfill their role we will continue to live under the govt we deserve.

We can only hope that today's events will lead to a split between the religious right and more moderate elements of the GOP. If we can further widen this breach the Democrats will sail to victory. Only with Democrats in control will we at least have a chance to turn around this horrible situation we find our country in...

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Maybe. Not all Dems are opposed to corporatism

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. The Bar has indeed been set.

And many are limboing underneath it.

[Oldtimeralso]

9. the bar has been set

the new level for the Bar is lower than a snakes belly button

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. Yep. Unfortunately,

the snake is in a tree.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. The people still have a chance

What they used to call a "Chinamen's chance"

[jfalchion]

4. Bolton

Well, Bolton is certainly an "extraordinary" nominee.

[ClintonTyree]

5. He's a shoe in now....

nobody can stop him, he's in.

[many a good man]

6. ANYBODY who has ever been confirmed

by any Congress in the past for ANY position will be a shoe-in for renomination.

Quick, who's the most extreme right wing judge on the Appeals Circuit today? THAT will be our next SC nominee.

[jfalchion]

7. Rove

I fear that you are correct.

Rove gets Bolton and most of the judges. When Rehnquit quits in June, Brown will be named CJ of the SC. That's when Rove gets to kill the filibuster.

Remember that Sen. Byrd ain't gettin' any younger.

"Oh, the humanity!!!"

[Guaranteed]

8. So says you.

The memo says that each signatory gets to decide whether or not a filibuster is the right thing to do.

[many a good man]

11. Meaningless, throwaway line

The key word is "extraordinary." You need a baseline to define the meaning of that word. The baseline has been established.

[Guaranteed]

12. Dupe

[Guaranteed]

13. No, the baseline was established in the memo.

"A. Future Nominations. Signatories will exercise their responsibilities under the Advice and Consent Clause of the United States Constitution in good faith. Nominees should only be filibustered under extraordinary circumstances, and each signatory must use his or her own discretion and judgment in determining whether such circumstances exist."

That means that we've only agreed not to filibuster these three nominees. That's it.

[markus]

14. A meaningless statement, "each senator"

It's pretty clear that they were right at 50 votes. When it most counts, all the GOP had to give up was the right of a handful of remaining moderate Republicans to cast their own up or down vote of no consequence.

50 + Cheney will shut down the filibuster for SCOTUS, and three of four of the GOP side of the Gang will get to vote no on the nominee.

The GOP was a vote short. One lousy vote. All they need to do is turn one of the six. And it's over.

[Fleshdancer]

15. this is why we do our homework now

The big fight is with the SC. At this point there must be whispers/rumors of who the Bush admin is looking at for a possible nomination. Why not work now to prove "extraordinary circumstances" with these people now?

I said this before in a different thread, but we should be busting our a** to lower the bar when it comes to defining "extraordinary circumstances". Besides, one would think that a nomination to the highest court in the land is pretty damn extraordinary in itself, right?

[jfalchion]

16. A pessimist...

is never disappointed.