Could Frist Have The Votes Already?

Power Line is running with the notion that the GOP currently has the votes to end the filibuster of judicial nominees. It is based in part on Majority Whip Mitch McConnell's statement to that effect on "Face the Nation."

"There's no doubt in my mind, and I'm a pretty good counter of votes ... that we have the votes we need," Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told CBS's "Face the Nation."

Of course, that's just another Republican who may be playing the public relations game. Perhaps more telling on the subject is a statement by Joe Biden, who suggested that the senate should allow five of the seven obstructed judges to be confirmed. Hinderaker arrives at a logical conclusion based on Biden's offer of a compromise.

Democrats play to win--unlike, sometimes, Republicans--and if they had a winning hand on judges, a subject dear to the hearts of their richest supporters, they would play it. Biden's willingness to compromise means they don't have the votes.

A David Broger column furthers the notion that the filibuster would ultimately be bad for the Democratic Party, and notes how bad a senate shutdown would be for business.

Voters placed Republicans in control of the White House and the Senate, and while the opposition still has a constitutional role to play, at the end of the day that function has to be more than talking important matters to death...

...Building such a roadblock to consideration of such important legislation as energy, Social Security, welfare reform and the routine financing of government would bring down deserved public condemnation, and the mighty megaphone of the White House would ensure that Democrats took the brunt of the blame. Democrats need to remember what happened to Newt Gingrich when he shut down the government for a few days in 1995 in a budget dispute with President Bill Clinton. It was not Clinton who lost public support.

Paul Mirengoff theorizes that Broger's column, which urges the Democratic Party to step back from this abyss, is still further evidence that the GOP has the votes to end the filubuster.

I would tend to agree that, if the Democrats in the senate thought they had a winning hand in the filibuster, they would not hesitate to use it. Biden's remarks are telling in that, as a leader among the vocal Democratic senators, he seems to be backing away from the reactionary rhetoric of the last two months.

It makes one wonder though. If five of the seven nominees are now acceptable to senate Democrats, what exactly was the problem with them before? If the left does back away from the filibuster and ultimately confirms these five judges it is simply further proof that this has been about power, politics, and a chance to demonize the Republican Party all along, rather than an honest concern for the judiciary.