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May 24, 2005
Compromise Reached! Nuclear Option Fails!
Fourteen Senators reached a bipartisan agreement Monday night to prevent a rules change ending the fillibuster for judicial nominees. Since the Democrats agreed to make a deal, it is very likely that we didn't have the votes to prevent the rule change, so this is the best solution we could hope for. Sens. Ben Nelson (D) and John McCain (R) were the leaders of the deal makers. Thank you Benator!
| Democrats | Republicans |
| Robert Byrd | Lincoln Chafee |
| Daniel Inouye | Susan Collins |
| Mary Landrieu | Mike DeWine |
| Joseph Lieberman | Lindsey Graham |
| Ben Nelson | John McCain |
| Mark Pryor | John Warner |
| Ken Salazar | Olympia Snowe |
Considering the circumstances, this is the best we could hope for. You can see a PDF of the deal on Kos. Yes, a few nominations that I don't like get approved, but a few remain blocked. More importantly, it gives us some freedom to still fillibuster a really extreme Supreme Court nominee. It looks like James Dobson and the other ultra-conservatives are going nuts, and I'm sure this will really hurt Bill Frist.
Update: I'm watching Fox News now (CNN isn't covering it right now), and they're disgusting spinning this entirely in favor of the GOP. More in the morning about how the real press treats this.
Posted by Max at May 24, 2005 12:37 AM
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Comments
Does this mean that William Pryor won't be filibustered? I think that this guy is the worst possible nominee. He's so socially conservative, he's near the top with Fred Phelps, Rick Santorum, and James Dobson. My feeling is that he does not have an impartial mind on a number of matters. The Republicans were stupid to be so unclear when they allowed filibusters in "extreme emergencies" only. In my eyes and in the eyes of almost all Democrats, somebody like Clarence Thomas is an "extreme emergency" as well as judges Owen and Brown. The GOP also agreed to never attempt to deny the minority of their rights. I guess that that's an admission that they were wrong trying to push for the ending of filibusters right from the beginning.
Posted by: LennyLiberal at May 24, 2005 03:44 PM
Lenny, I think Pryor's one of the ones getting through, along with Brown and Owens. Myers and Saad weren't part of the agreement.
Posted by: Johnny Gentle (famous crooner) at May 24, 2005 08:56 PM