Filibuster May Have Been Good?
--posted by Tony Garcia on 5/24/2005
I disagree with the conclusion that this deal helps teh GOP, but a very realistic scenario is presented by W. C. Varones.
What if the Republicans didn't have the votes in the first place?
It's not outside the realm of possibility.
The nuclear option was a pretty serious step to take. I would think many Republican senators, even if they despised the Democrats' obstructionist tactics, would be pretty reluctant to make a radical, and decorum-damaging, change to the rules. There's a reason Trent Lott called it the nuclear option in the first place.
Are we really so sure that Snow, Collins, Voinovich, Chafee, and several others were on board, and would have gone through with it? Maybe they just talked a good game so that the Democrats would compromise. That's easier for me to believe than the idea that 50 or 51 senators would have gone through with the nuclear option.
I wouldn't want to play poker with Frist... or with the Gang of Seven. They may have just pulled off the bluff of a lifetime. They may have just turned an embarassing defeat into the confirmation of Owens, Brown, and Pryor, as well as more restraint in Democratic filibusters in the future.
Interesting, but I still think that this was a bad deal.
Jabley.com hypothesizes that this was a Presidential run setup for John McCain (R-AZ) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE).
Throughout the process, both John McCain (R-AZ) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) were actively involved in negotiating deal terms. Of these two putative presidential candidates, only McCain appears to have signed the deal. Hagel, on the other hand, has been quoted by a Nebraska TV station as expressing disappointment over the deal terms.
While it is encouraging that both Hagel and McCain participated in the negotiations (they have cemented the respect of centrists from both parties), I believe that it clearly gives Hagel the upper hand in the 2008 primaries.
I do have to disagree...it is not nice that any Republican had a hand in the negotiations.
This story will have ramifications long down the road.
2 Comments:
You might not agree that it was "nice," but you have to admit that the conclusion as regards the downstream effects regarding these two hopefuls might well be correct.
I do agree with the possible ramifications downstream.
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