At the close of yesterday’s rant, I provided links to a couple other blog posts that offered a different opinion-that the Democrats got the better part of the deal. Today I read a column by Robert Kuttner titled “Bush and Frist got what they wanted” that is closer in sentiment to what I wrote yesterday. Here are a few excerpts (emphasis added):
What does the vaunted compromise actually do? First, it guarantees an up-or-down floor vote on three of the most reactionary judges ever to come before the Senate: Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor, and Priscilla Owen. It was Democratic resistance to these appellate nominees that caused Frist to go nuclear in the first place. He and George W. Bush won. The three judges are now likely to be confirmed, and other extremist nominees will keep coming.
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In the end, seven of the 55 Senate Republicans decided to pursue this “compromise,” leaving him two votes short. But if these Republicans were genuinely moderates, they would not just be providing this parliamentary fig leaf; they would be voting against confirmation of these extremist nominees when they come up for a floor vote.If you want to look for profiles in courage, see whether “moderate” Republicans like Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, John McCain of Arizona, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island actually oppose any of these nominees. For the most part, these people posture moderate and then do Bush’s bidding.
So how did they vote on the Owen nomination today? Collins, McCain, and Snowe voted for Owen. How very “moderate” of them to vote for confirmation of one of Bush’s more extreme nominees. The other three Republicans not mentioned in Kuttner’s column, Warner (VA), DeWine (OH) and Graham (SC), all voted for Owen. Chafee was the lone Republican that broke ranks and voted against her. Two of the seven Democrats voted for Owen: Mary Landrieu (LA), and Robert Byrd (WV). Robert Byrd, one of the most outspoken critics of the Bush Administration, voted for a radical conservative judge? Did he skip his meds today or what?
We’ll have to wait and see if Chafee is shipped off to Gitmo or Uzbekistan for “softening” prior to the next vote.
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