Many Republicans Are Already Eager to Challenge Agreement on Filibusters - New York Times
Not surprising. Republicans are liars. Deal breakers. Extremists. Bullies. Lather, rinse, repeat.
WASHINGTON, May 24 - Angered by a bipartisan deal on judicial nominees, many Senate Republicans warned on Tuesday that they were already eager to challenge the agreement by pushing forward contested candidates, as the Senate cleared the way for the confirmation of the first Bush choice to benefit from the deal.
"This deal is really no deal until it plays out at length," said Senator Larry E. Craig, Republican of Idaho, who said he wanted a vote soon after Memorial Day on the nomination of William G. Myers III, a candidate whose fate was left uncertain in the deal.
Just a day after the agreement broke an impasse that had vexed the Senate and the Bush administration for years, senators on both sides of the aisle portrayed the new framework as fragile. Republicans in particular said the bipartisan deal, brokered by seven Democrats and seven Republicans on the eve of a showdown that could have crippled the Senate, would survive only if Democrats refrained from filibustering other emerging nominees, including some who were not guaranteed a vote in the last-minute agreement.
Other Republicans threatened to immediately invoke what some have called the nuclear option - doing away with the filibuster against judicial candidates - if Democrats tried to block any nominee except in the most extreme cases.
"This is merely a truce; it's not a treaty yet," said Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah and a senior member of the Judiciary Committee.
First of all, the Republicans coined the term "nuclear option"- don't give me this "some have called" line. Second, the option was supposed to be off the table for this batch of judges. Already they are threatening to break their end of the bargain. Perhaps they are just putting on a good show for the wailing "Fristians" out there, all those spoiled children who are now crying because they can't have all the cookies.
Shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
Not.
It's going to be a long four years.