Schadenfreude!

I feel a little better about the Senate Compromise now that I have read how much the "moderates" over at TNR hate it:

When the Americans and the Soviets retreated from the brink of nuclear war after the Cuban missile crisis, jubilation followed. The world had not ended! Life would go on! But, of course, that was hardly the end of the story. There was still the matter of the cold war to settle. Similarly, the Senate's retreat this week from its own nuclear confrontation, in the form of a compromise crafted by 14 so-called moderates, is grounds for some Democratic relief. Republicans were denied a total victory, and they failed to set the alarming precedent of changing Senate rules by fiat. But, just as John F. Kennedy knew the Soviets were hardly vanquished, so Harry Reid knows that the war is not won. And, while he's been publicly praising the moderates who cut this deal, we wonder whether he will not come to curse them.

And they don't wait too long to curse

This compromise was a classic case of moderate deal-making in Washington--and we don't mean that as a compliment. Congressional moderates are forever celebrated for "bucking their parties" and "standing on principle," regardless of what they actually accomplish (or what principle they stand on).

They’re decrying that the Bush tax cuts weren't trimmed enough and Medicare spending was cut, and that John Bolton will be confirmed. A WaPo hailed "principle over self-protection." TNR wonders:

Really? We fail to see how that's true. Compromise itself, after all, is not a principle. And the chief principle at stake--that every extremist should not be elevated to the federal bench--has been trammeled. Nor has the life of the filibuster (itself not a principle either, just a procedural tool) been guaranteed. Signatories merely agreed to filibuster future nominations only in "extraordinary circumstances." Everything depends on the interpretation of this absurdly fuzzy clause--a matter upon which Republicans and Democrats will most certainly differ. Which means what the moderates have come up with is not a resolution so much as a postponement.

Well, if TNR is this unhappy, maybe we didn't do soooo bad. Here's the close.

Moreover, when the filibuster fight comes to a head again--as it will--the Democrats' task will be made all the more difficult not only by the need to demonstrate "extraordinary circumstances," but by the implication that the three Bush nominees the deal effectively confirmed, whom the liberal establishment treated as something close to worst-case picks, did not constitute "extraordinary circumstances." That sets the bar awfully high. (Even some conservatives have fretted over Brown's onetime suggestion that she observes a higher law than the Constitution.) Furthermore, what happens should Bush choose one of these three to fill the next Supreme Court vacancy?

The answers to these questions all seem to favor the Republicans. There may be grounds for Democratic relief that Bill Frist was not able to steamroll them completely. But the terms of the moderates' deal, unfortunately, should be seen less as a triumph over the extremes than a triumph of the extremes.

Feelin' better all the time!

Politics Posted by jk at May 27, 2005 1:29 PM