(Updated 5/24)
There's a new gang in town.
The deal over the judicial filibuster--consummated by 14 centrist Senators today--not only averted a protracted political war, but may well have announced that all business in the Senate must now go through this right-center gang of 14.
The MOU released by the group sketched the outline of the deal--three Bush court appointees are in, two more remain in play presumably with the message that they should be withdrawn or face a filibuster, and the judicial filibuster will be preserved for the Dems to use another day. But in the press conference the senators spoke in coded and not-so-coded messages about the real shape of the deal on current and future judicial nominees.
Most telling were the comments of Lindsey Graham, a socially conservative, Republican senator from South Carolina and perhaps the most right wing member of the gang. "We're going to start talking about who would be a good judge and who wouldn't," Graham said. "And the White House is going to get more involved and they are going to listen to us more."
Graham sent a direct message to the President--the road to the federal bench runs through the group of 14, consult us before you send a nominee down the pike. But the agreement as a whole sent an oblique one to Bill Frist and the Senate GOP leadership: the center of the GOP will not lay down its principles before a leadership hellbent on twisting the party as far to the extreme right as possible.
Just as the 'nuclear option' was a line in the sand drawn by a bully, this agreement represents the centrists staring that bully down. The unspoken statement is this--we backed us off the brink this time, call off your dogs or we'll shoot you down the next time.
In a normal political world, a deal like this would cause a president to pull back any far right nominees and work to find agreeable centrist judicial nominees.
In a normal political world, a bullying majority leader would pull back in the face of a deal like this. The simple mathematics of it all means this group of 14 Senators can control the institution if they can stay together. And possible consensus on social security, medicare, and other legislation will then have to meet with approval from the new bipartisan center caucus. A majority leader who cared about moving legislation would try to court, not alienate such a group.
But we don't live in a normal political world, we live in the midst of a "culture war" declared and prosecuted by the Christian right, and a big part of that plan is packing the federal bench with Christian soldiers--judges friendly to extending full human rights to embryos, allowing prayer in schools, allowing federal money to pay for parochial education, allowing government censorship of media, and generally Christianizing our nation.
Tom Watson cites some fascinating vitriol coming from the right wing blogs. And the quote from Christian militant activist James Dobson this morning drips with venom, accusing a cabal of Republican traitors of plotting to yanks control of the judiciary from the hands of the Christianists.
For these extremists, everything is all about their "culture war." Why else would the Christian militants be going berzerk at the news that they just got a free pass for three judges who had previously been shot down? For them nothing short of complete control of every aspect of American life is enough. This fight was never about specific judges but about removing obstacles to their goal of packing the bench.
But we don't live in a normal political environment. The Christian militants in the GOP leadership will NOT pull back. And the cohesion of group of 14 is likely to be tested early--with a nominee thrown into the face of Democrats like a slap: I dare you to filibuster this one.
The Dems will have to filibuster in such a circumstance or the agreement to preserve the right to filibuster would be rendered meaningless. Under those circumstances, would 6 Republican members of the gang of 14 vote with the Dems? Sooner or later we're going to find out.
As with any good deal no one got everything they wanted, and everyone can claim victory in this one. The President gets three nominees to the bench who were filibustered last time. The Democrats preserve the right to filibuster, especially important in case of a presumed Supreme Court nomination this summer. The GOP centrists get their mojo back, moving from a position of weakness and isolation to the seat of power. And Bill Frist gets to crow to megachurch pews full of faithful that he's the wounded standard bearer for their Jihad, a position that will play well for him since, despite this agreement, the lunatics still run the GOP asylum and the party's next presidential nominee will have to gain the backing of the Christianists.
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