Why I consider this a victory

[returnable]

It's really quite simple:

The minority party forced the ruling majority into making a compromise THAT THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO MAKE.

Frist had the votes to kill the filibuster, but his party backed down. They held all the cards and could've jammed through all of these nominees while telling the Dems to just shove it. But they flinched and now their base is going haywire.

You may not like the terms, but I'll take a one-run victory over a blowout loss every time.

[merh]

1. exactly!

:applause: :applause: :applause:

[Beetwasher]

2. Well, We May Never Know Who Had The Votes

I'm taking a wait and see. NYT is declaring this a BUSH victory though. I say fuck the NYT, but there it is.

A Modest Victory for Bush, but More Tests Lie Ahead
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
Published: May 24, 2005


WASHINGTON, May 23 - President Bush won enough from the bipartisan compromise on judicial nominees on Monday night to claim a limited victory, but he now faces a series of additional tests of his political authority, with the stakes extending to the fate of his second-term agenda.

On the plus side for Mr. Bush, the bipartisan agreement among 14 centrist senators expressly called for up-or-down votes on three of his nominees to federal appeals court seats, all but ensuring their confirmations, though it left in limbo the fate of two more.

By explicitly exempting from the agreement two additional judges opposed by Democrats, it did not meet Mr. Bush's oft-stated demand that all his nominees get a vote, and it did not foreclose the possibility that Democrats could block an eventual nominee to the Supreme Court, a matter of intense concern to the White House. The split-the-baby outcome, moreover, did little to resolve a rolling series of challenges to Mr. Bush that in coming days and weeks could do much to set the tone for his second four years in office.

On Tuesday, the House is to vote on a bill that would defy Mr. Bush and lift restrictions on federal financing of stem-cell research, legislation that stands a good chance of passing.

--snip--

[atreides1]

3. Guess What

Frist still has the votes to kill the filibuster, all that this deal really does is give Bush his judges, and denies the American public
the chance to see that the Republican party truly desires a one party
government.

And not all of the Repub base is going haywire, Dobson considers the
Repubs who were part of this deal as traitors and backstabbers, while he still supports Frist. He will now use his considerable power and access to funds to get those
7 Repubs out of office.

We didn't win, all this deal did was to postpone the inevitable, in other words it was a tie!!!!!