Like a married couple emerging from the video store with a compromise film that neither really wanted to watch, Democrats and Republicans seem equally unimpressed with last night's last-minute deal on judicial nominees.
In short, the deal lets through three of George Bush's controversial judicial nominees in exchange for preserving the senate filibuster. The deal was brokered by 14 senators, including Arizona Republican John McCain, who said the agreement had pulled the senate back from a precipice.
Salon rounds up the reaction across rightwing blogs, which had wanted to push that nuclear button and wanted it bad. The response of John Hinderaker at Powerline is typical: "To me, it looks like a pathetic collapse on the part of the Republicans, not the leadership, but Senators like McCain who sold out their party."
Angrier still is evangelical Christian group Focus on the Family, which denounced the deal as "a complete bailout and betrayal by a cabal of Republicans and a great victory for united Democrats." The group's chairman and the right's chief nuclear-option cheerleader, James Dobson, said in a statement that the deal will leave conservatives feeling outraged and abandoned.
You'd think that would be some consolation over on the left, but to be honest, they're not happy either.
Senator Russ Feingold berated Democrats for caving to the "bullying tactics of the Republican leadership". "Confirming unacceptable judicial nominations is simply a green light for the Bush administration to send more nominees who lack the judicial temperament or record to serve in these lifetime positions," he said in a statement.
Daily Kos tries to inject some perspective: a few unpalatable judges may sneak through, but the filibuster is preserved for the supreme court fight, whenever it may come.
But even the Princeton University students, who set up a filibuster of senate majority leader Bill Frist and who greet the news with a cry of victory, take a moment to wonder what they're celebrating. After all, they note, the best that happened was to stop the Republicans running roughshod over senate rules and traditions. "Is it a victory when the world is returned to what it should be? Do we celebrate normalcy?"
You do with that lot in power. Lighten up, kids. When James Dobson is this upset, you can safely crack open the bubbly.
