Pusillanimous GOP Senators craft "compromise" with the enemy

Senators Reach Compromise on Filibusters

Centrists Republicans and Democrats reached a compromise Monday night to avoid a showdown on President Bush's stalled judicial nominees and the Senate's own filibuster rules, officials from both parties said.

These officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agreement would clear the way for yes-or-no votes on some of Bush's nominees, but make no guarantee.

Under the agreement, Democrats would pledge not to filibuster any of Bush's future appeals court or Supreme Court nominees except in "extraordinary circumstances."

For their part, Republicans agreed not to support an attempt to strip Democrats of their right to block votes.

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"Extraordinary circumstances"? To Leahy, Schumer, Kennedy, Reid et al this will easily encompass the nomination of judges who actually interpret the pieces of the Constitution as they were understood when ratified. Essentially, the true extremists -- the ACLU, NARAL and NOW, ACT-UP, the NAACCCP, PETA, pornographers, perverts and Pagans -- will determine when circumstances are extraordinary. "Judge Vandelay doesn't think a man should be able to legally marry a pig?! I call 'extraordinary circumstances'!"

NRO is listing Senators McCain, DeWine, Snowe, Warner, Graham, and Collins as the weak-as-water GOP signatories to the deal.

Someone should remind these Senators of a recent "extraordinary circumstance", last November's election, wherein their party's president won the privilege, under a couple centuries of precedent, to have his nominees to the federal bench voted on by the full Senate.