Wait a second, they get up or down votes on EVERYONE?

I thought they retained the right to filibuster a couple. The worst 3 get on. Wonderful deal. Just wonderful.

Until the Repugs decide they don't want them to.

The Democrats caved without a fight.

The Democratic senators in the group agreed that they would only support filibusters of "extreme" candidates. But, in order for the agreement to hold, the Republican senators in the group have to agree with the Democratic senators that the candidate is, in fact, "extreme". But - if these 7 Republicans agree that the candidate is "extreme", they would not vote for him/her, so the filibuster is not needed anyway. Conclusion: the Democrats hold no cards at all.

On the other hand, if the Republican senators in the group think the candidate is not "extreme", they either veto the filibuster or open up the "nuclear" option again. They hold ALL the cards.

Net effect: same thing as before, except now, instead of Democrats having the right to decide to filibuster, the seven Republican senators have the veto power over it.

wait and see. None of us can accurately predict but Supreme Court battle is coming up soon. I see it as giving up this battle and saving the fight for the bigger one.

would have been achieved if we did not try to filibuster Owen and Brown now. Except:

* We did not have the "extraordinary circumstances" criterion to meet in order to justify the filibuster - now we do

* We did not have Owen and Brown as the yardstick against which the "extraordinary circumstances" will be measured. Now we do.

... and so succinct.

We are nowhere near being able to declare this a victory - and doing so is only an invitation to take our eyes off the ball.

You are delusional if you think they're gonna fillibuster anyone short of a serial child-molester.

What fight? The Democratic Party gave us Clarence Thomas as the replacement for Thurgood Marshall. What exactly do people think is going to improve when the Democrats arent the majority party in either house?

It is as alive as it was last week, and now, it is as alive today as it will be tomorrow.

Knock off the gloom and doom. The sky isn't falling.

"extraordinary circumstances" attached to it, with a yardstick of "Owen and Brown" as an example of non-extraordinary circumstance. Now there is. So it is quite a bit less "alive" than it was last week.

This week, it is out of Frist's hands--which means out of the hands of the neocons and theo-corporates.

The filibuster was granted a repreive.

Try looking past the fact that some DLCers actually did something useful, and see this for the potential boon to the Dems that it is.

I see it as a pick up of 5 or more Senate seats, each of the Moderates that signed that agreement will be back, Frist has bee slapped down by McCain, and Bush loses his up/down on 30-40% of his appointees.

The worst three get on and the more moderate two get thrown away?!?! I'm also afraid that we will want to filibuster something and they will bring this nuclear option back up BUT I'm hoping that we will have the votes after the 2006 election to stop it.

rolled over~

I really like your "sacred tree" picture mrgorth. May I ask where you got it and if I can use it?

It's not mine. Just check the properties.

Check out this link! I swear, these folks need to be shipped back to Nazi Germany in a time machine to figure out what they are really asking for! Sheesh!

http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=14751

They are the ones who are satisfied with plastic breadcrumbs.