Gang of 12 is holding a press conference right now on Nuclear Opt deal

[housewolf]

cnn & fox news

[undeterred]

1. sorry but who are the gang of 12?

[housewolf]

3. The group of senators working on an anti- nuc option deal

bipartisan group, 6 senators from each party, have been working hard for a week or more now

[housewolf]

2. McCain, Leiberman & Warner all look happy n/t

[DCal]

17. Who are the other Senators at the press conference?

[Gothmog]

4. Frist is toast

This deal kills Bill Frist's chances for the white house.

[McCamy Taylor]

15. Agree, * and Rove killed another GOP career for their short term gain

Man, these guys are so not team players, why do Republicans go along with them?

[longship]

5. Headline: DINOs Sell Out on Judges

The DINOs are going to vote for the extremists.

Fucking idiots.

[DaveinMD]

7. bs

it gives us the right to stop supreme court nominations. All we have to claim is that it is an extraordinary circumstance.

[Jawja]

9. Exactly.

ALL of his Supreme Court nominees could be "extraordinary" in circumstance.

I believe this deal was struck to prevent Dick Cheney from taking absolute power.

[DaveinMD]

6. Sen. Byrd

was involved in this deal as well.

[patricia92243]

8. So Bush gets his nominess and we get the shaft - as usual.

[housewolf]

12. We did NOT get the shaft!

We had to give some and they had to give some. What happens now is that Owen, Brown and Proyer get an up-and-down vote. We retain the ability to filibuster extremist judges in the future.

The country won and the Senate won. Both parties lost a little. Frist did not get his way. He now has to deal with the right wing's disappointment that he didn't deliver all that he said he would. He has not emasculated the Dems.

This is really not so bad...

[Idioteque]

10. HOLD ON HOLD ON...They have the right to nuke in the future?

What the fuck kind of compromise is that?!?

[Jawja]

11. Oh, really?

I didn't get that.

[DaveinMD]

13. and we have the right to filibuster

its a good deal.

[Internut]

19. So - basically, the same exact results

were achieved in this compromise as would have been if Democrats simply allowed the votes for Brown and Owen etc. without any filibusters.

Am I missing something?

[DaveinMD]

20. this wasn't about them

its about preserving our ability to stop bad supreme court nominees.

[Internut]

22. But the same exact effect

("preserving our ability to stop bad supreme court nominees") would have been achieved by allowing the up/down votes on Owen and Brown without this huge brouhaha.

So - we're back to the same thing we had before, that is, Democrats can filibuster in "extraoridnary circumnstances", and Republicans can pull the "nuclear" trigger if they feel that the Democrats are filibustering without the circumstances being "extraordinary". There is no difference between now and a week ago. Oh - yes there is. Owen and Brown are going to be confirmed.

[Idioteque]

16. DeWine said that if Republican members feel that Dems are filibustering...

...unreasonably, they reserve the right to nuke.

[housewolf]

14. No - the nuclear option is off the table

and we agreed to only block in very extreme cases. In addition, there will be an attemmpt for consultation with the WH and both parties to nominate people who won't cause so much upset.

[Democat]

21. Who said it's off the table?

Who?

[housewolf]

23. Harry Reid, just now n/t

[AlGore-08.com]

25. The nuclear option is off the table? Nope, it'll be back

The GOP has played this game for 5 years now, promise the moon, deliver squat. The first great compromise came when the Dem Senators agreed not to challenge the 2000 Florida electors in exchange for power sharing in the Senate. Two years later, Tom Daschle was run out of office as a "traitor" by the GOP smear machine.

These clowns in the GOP are the spiritual descendants of those Washingtonians who made treaties with the Native Americans and then promptly broke them when it was to their advantage.

Accept this for what it is, but don't expect Frist and the rest of his crew to keep their part of the bargain.

[RUMPLEMINTZ]

18. What the fu*k!

We just let the 3 most far right fanatics in Pryor, Brown, and Owen get through. How can we filibuster the supreme court when we did this? All the pukes have to do is say you guys voted for these three that means that they can't be "extremists." This is unfreakinbelieable!!!

[GreenPoet64]

24. You raise a good point . . .

I'm glad the filibuster is entact . . . but if we aren't able to filibuster these three in the future, then we are screwed. My hope is that there was a behind closed doors deal.

[Gothmog]

26. Without compromise, Scalia or Thomas would be Chief Justice

Without this compromise, Bush would put Scalia or Thomas up as chief justice when Rehnquist retires. That is more difficult now because the option to filibuster in on the table. The nuclear option may be more difficult to pull off for a supreme court justice.