"The weren't going to filibuster owen or pryer or brown . They were going to vote on the cloture motion so the nuclear test wouldn't have been possible."
The hell the Rats weren't. This deal is because of the RINOs, not because of the left. The nuke test waffling isn't because the left isn't solidly pro-filibuster--it's because the RINOs AREN'T solidly agin' it. THEY weren't going to filibuster owen or pryor or brown--they were going to have to go on record as for or against them without being able to have the Rats torpedo them for being extremist or racist or sexist.
"In the meantime, their vote means there is no longer an ideological litmus test.If these three are not extremists, judges who hold the same views cannot meet the "extraordinary circumstances" test AND all the judges will have up or down votes.The Reps still have the constitutional option if they need it for scotus."
And as long as you're dreaming I want a 1966 Testarossa. The remaining white guys will be filibustered and the RINOs will torpedo us then as they wouldn't have for Brown or Owen. And the rules change will never happen, and thus won't be ready for the SCOTUS. If it isn't changed now, it won't be changed THEN, with all the bluster and bullshit a SCOTUS nomination entails, especially for a conservative judge.
Really--it was all over DC--several Dems were going to vote for cloture to preclude a filibuster and a vote on the rules change. Take a deep breath--the ideological litmus test has died (If Brown and Owens and Pryor meet it, no other candidate meets the "exceptional circumstance" test; if the Dems try to renege, they will be said to have broken the agreement and the fence sitters have cover to vote for the rules change.