Here's the transcript of Rush Limbaugh re: Estrada:

'Splainin' the GOP Estrada Strategery

March 3, 2003

Let's retrace our steps here on this Miguel Estrada business from last week because this is what caused hell to break loose. There was a Fox News story on Friday that said essentially that the Republican Senate leadership had decided they weren't going to win this battle, so they were going to call for a cloture vote, with only 55 votes for Estrada, which would mean he would lose. This would also mean that the Democrats would be successful in corrupting the Constitution.

The Constitution says that judges need only a simple majority, 51 votes to be confirmed. Well, Estrada, if they call this vote, is going to get 55 and lose. That's tearing up and shredding the Constitution. We'd heard all along that the Republicans are going to hold fast, make sure the Democrats continue to filibuster until they tire of it, and President Bush said last week that he would stand by this nomination until Estrada is confirmed. Then this Fox story came along, making it look like the Republican leadership was going to give up. This caused us to get a couple phone calls, one from Senator Rick Santorum's office, and one from the office of Senator Orrin Hatch saying that the Fox News story was not totally correct, that they are not caving, and that they're going to hang tough.

GOP Senators May Call Democrat Bluff

Over the weekend, the strategery became a little clearer. I've been under the impression that if the Republicans call for a vote and lose it, it's over and Estrada is defeated. But that's not the case. Here's why: The only way you can end a filibuster is to beat it with 60 votes or to have the side conducting it give up. So the strategy here is to call a vote and lose it and call another vote and call another vote and keep making the Democrats vote against a Hispanic nominee, vote and vote and vote and vote so that these Democrats are on record time and again voting against the first Hispanic nominee to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Now, I don't know if this strategy will prevail, but it's thought by some that this could force the Democrats' hand. The Democrats might not even want one vote. They're just bluffing, trying to convince the Republicans they don't have 60 votes, so they shouldn't even call for the vote, because they don't want to set the precedent of a nominee needing 60 votes, whereas the Constitution says he only needs 51.

The Republican answer to this is, "Oh, yeah, fine? You guys say you have the votes, let's see them. Go ahead and vote against Estrada - then explain it your Hispanic constituents." We'll just have to wait and see if this is how it plays out, but this is the GOP Senate strategery, as I understand it.

That reads much better than how it sounded today. I have said here though that while giving in on the 60 vote thing is bad, taking names on the record is not. It's hard to tell who is bluffing. The Dems might well have figured that the Republicans wouldn't go down the 60 vote road, that they would fold first. I'm sure they figured the Republicans wouldn't risk a 24/7 filibuster on a judicial nominee giving the Dems the chance to go out and yap about the Republican agenda during a time of impending war and economic uncertainty.

so the fox news story was correct then...