Senate Filibuster Deal Will Be a Test of Integrity

Today's Senate deal, hatched by enough Republicans and Democrats to preclude a Republican majority to reject it, has put the pressure on both parties to deliver on what the deal commits them to do.

The Dems will have to allow an up or down vote on Federal Circuit Court nominees Owens, Brown and Pryor. Nominess considered after their vote can be filibustered for "good cause."

Republicans, on the other hand, agree that they will not vote to rescind the filibuster rule for judicial nominees unless the Democrats act in "bad faith."

The Plus Side: The Democrats save face and the Republicans don't have to vote in a rules change that could come back to haunt them should they ever lose the Senate majority.

Also, should both parties toe the line on the deal, virtually every nominee will eventually be voted on by the whole Senate. Apparently the filibuster will be considered "in order" when objecting to moral or ethical concerns about a nominee's character but not for objections over their idiology or judicial philosophy.

The Negative Side: Seven Republican Senators, acting independently from their party leadership, cut a deal that effectively sold out their party's majority to the Democrats on this issue. This action, in my opinion, ends Bill Frist's role as the Senate majority leader. He should be asked to step down and be replaced by one of the 48 Republican Senators who did not sign on to today's agreement.

The seven Republicans who compromised are: Lincoln Chafee (Rhode Island), Susan Collins (Maine), Mike DeWine (Ohio), Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), John McCain (Arizona), John Warner (Virginia) & Olympia Snowe (Maine).

The MSM is already heralding these Republican dissidents as if they had somehow saved democracy and the Constitution from the power-crazed idiologues in their own party. This alone should make most conservatives worry.

Republican John McCain and Democrat Robert Byrd lead the cheerleading when the deal was announced. It seemed as if these two men could not stop saying enough nice things about each other.

Byrd: "We have lifted ourselves above politics, and we have signed this document in the interests of the United States Senate, in the interest of freedom of speech, freedom of debate and freedom to dissent in the United States Senate....Thank God for this moment and for these colleagues of mine."

McCain applauded Warner and Byrd for bringing both sides together to forge an agreement based on Senate principles: "trust, respect and a mutual desire to see the institution of the Senate function in ways that protect the rights of the minority."

Those Republican Party volunteers who worked so hard to acheive a Senate majority will most certainly be disappointed, if not appalled, at this turn of events.

Personally, the hug-fest between McCain, Byrd and Warner gives me the creeps. I do not trust Senator Byrd to say anything honest ever and I wonder what sort of mutual backscratching has been going on behind the scenes. We can expect to see some very significant pork coming home to roost in Arizona and South Carolina in the coming months. I also doubt very much whether there will be any military base closings in the states represented by these seven Senators from each party (think Snowe....think Maine). I suspect we have had more than one deal cut today.

The unity and effective control of the US Senate by the Republican party has been sold out for a "mess of pottage." Having tasted blood in the water I do not believe for minute that Dem Senators like Kennedy, Reid and Kerry are going to feel any reason to play by rules set up by others.

When the time comes for them to come in for the kill they will do so. And they will face a splintered and leaderless Republican party when they do.

Just wait for the first US Supreme Court nominee!

(As always, I hope I am wrong).

Update: Having written my comments first I am in the ego-inflating position to say that Captain Ed (see his final two paragraphs and compare) agrees with me!
.