| Tuesday, May 24, 2005 |
| Winners and losers |
It's becoming more and more difficult to sort out the real winners and losers in the fillibuster-busting deal reached by 14 Senators last night.
It seems that nobody wants to exactly declare victory, though Pelosi and Reid are doing their darndest, and Bush seems like a pretty happy man today. The Republicans and their interest groups are furious, even though the deal resulted in Priscilla Owen clearing the cloture hurdle by a lopsided 81 to 18 vote today. How is getting Owen a one-way ticket to the federal bench a slam dunk for Democrats? Not sure, except that the party preserved the option of using the filibuster in the future: namely, on Bush's Supreme Court nominees.
...which is why the religious right is enraged by this deal. Even getting Owen confirmed, probably as early as Wednesday, isn't sating the Freeperati, who are shark-circling the GOP cavers, especially DeWine, Warner and poor old Lindsey Graham (never thought I'd feel sorry for an impeachment manager...)
Howard Dean basically spoke for the leftie base:
"I would be hesitant to say yet that it's a win for the Democratic Party," he
said. "It's a real test of whether this is a real long-term agreement. That will
come when we find out if the president consults with the Democrats," he added.
and the GOPers seem to be giving Bill Frist a pass for now (how many times has he used the words "I was not a party to the deal" today?
"I don't think the leadership caved, it was a handful of senator who preferred to stay in the Land of Political Indecision," said Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council.
This is a serious problem for me. How can we declare a winner if no one will volunteer? |
posted by JReid @ 2:20 PM   |
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