If you mean the agreement is one of the most brilliant political schemes ever devised to legitimize democrat abuse of Senate rules, hogtie a republican majority and enable a democrat minority to dictate much of the Senate agenda during the 109th congress I agree wholeheartedly.
If not, please explain your reasoning for those of us who don't see the majesty of the agreement.
John Roberts, Sam Alito, JANICE ROGERS BROWN!, Priscilla Owen, William Pryor.... All confirmed with barely a fight. Getting the picture?
Here ya go; I copied and pasted from an old thread (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1494718/posts?page=33#33) so you can hopefully get a clue:
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A Democrat filibuster is a dead issue - - won’t happen.
When Graham and DeWine walked into the scheme (the “Gang of Fourteen” deal) to trick the rats, they knew full well that they were going to take a hit from conservatives who were slow to figure it all out. And they did take a beating.
(Curiously, there are still some conservatives who apparently don’t get it yet, even after Owens, Brown, Pryor and others have been confirmed, and even after it has been explained that Frist STILL has his finger hovering over “the nuclear button” and he can push it any time he needs to.)
At this point, thanks to the “extraordinary circumstances” language of “the deal”, the rats are completely boxed in and our nervous “blue state” GOP Senators have the cover they need to vote nuclear if and when the time comes.
(It still boggles my mind that the Democrats walked right into the trap. I can hardly stop smiling!)
The Republicans needed to get a couple of ringers into the “Gang of Fourteen” in order for the scheme to work, and Graham and DeWine stepped up - - they are heroes.
The scheme was needed in the first place either because Frist was not certain that he had the fifty votes needed to “go nuclear” OR he figured that doing the “deal” was simply a superior strategy, especially from a PR point of view - - with “the deal”, the liberal press couldn’t accuse the Republicans of “running roughshod over the Constitution”, being “bullies”, doing “incalculable damage to Constitution”, “destroying Senate tradition”, etc., etc. This was the kind of press that some “blue state” Republican Senators were nervous about. But not anymore - - because NOW they got some COVER! See, if the rats filibuster virtually ANYBODY, especially a Supreme Court nominee, then the Republicans can throw up their hands and claim that the Democrats went back on their word. “We are left no choice, in the face of broken promises by the Democrats, but to change the filibuster rules at this time.”
I happen to believe that “the deal” was a masterpiece of political ingenuity that could only have been dreamed up by the ghost of Lee Atwater over breakfast with Karl Rove. And it could not have happened without the willing participation of Graham and DeWine.
SUMMARY:
As a result of “the deal”, the rats cannot sustain a filibuster because seven of them have promised not to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee except under “extrordinary circumstances”. (Simply being a conservative does not meet the criteria of “extrordinary circumstances”.) IF five of the seven Democrats in the “Gang of Fourteen” are forced by leadership to break their promise and support a filibuster, then the GOP can unabashedly (thanks to the cover provided by “the deal”) exercise their “nuclear” option.
And so any talk of a filibuster is indeed “bluster”.
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Here’s more:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1409143/posts
By the way, welcome to Free Republic.