Deal-ivered or Deal-ayed? - Nuclear Nonproliferation of the Senate Deal of
the Senat-ury Struck - Will It Prevent Future Strikes?
"Senators
Reach Compromise on Filibusters" - On the night that "Faith of
Our Fathers" is screened at the Ronald Reagan Building with its star and
potential Presidential nominee in 2008 front and center, the gang of 14 announced
a they had made a deal on the overhyped named "nuclear option". The
salient details include a promise by Democrats not to filibuster any of President
Bush's future appeals or Supreme Court nominees except under extreme circumstances.
The Republicans would not attempt to take away the Democrats right to block
votes. One immediate result would be for Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla
Owen to get a vote by the Senate for a seat on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
in New Orleans.
Time will tell who the big winners and losers are here. On the face of it,
Senators Bill Frist and Harry Reid will get some blame for their inability to
work out a compromise in the minds of much of the country who have in recent
polls given the Congress some of its lowest ratings. However, the centrists
will gain the opprobrium of the hard core right and left wings of their parties
for giving in instead of "standing on principle". However, some may
see the act of working together as a principle in itself and the basis of democracy.
One idea floated to form a commission to advise the President on nominees will
certainly draw criticism from those who may see this as excessive meddling by
the legislative branch into the executive.
It seems that bottom line that the lines of authority and power are getting
very blurred with legislators taking on the executive and the judiciary legislating
from the bench.
The next steps will be interesting to watch. Hardliners on both sides will
have to weigh the benefits of the compromise versus the criticism they will
engender from an electorate who is sick of the gridlock and posturing as well
as any attempts by either side to make the system less democratic (lower case).
Will any of this matter by 2008 given the gnat size attention span of the ADD
electorate? It will depend on how the compromise plays out - if it does or does
not.
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