A Pact Does Not Mean Peace

NYT replaces The filibuster is far from dead in the Senate. Putting a fitting exclamation point on weeks of bitter partisan fighting, Democrats initiated a stunningly successful procedural attack on Thursday against one of President Bush's high-profile nominees, just days after an unusual compromise averted a showdown over the right to filibuster judicial candidates. The vote against cutting off debate over the confirmation of John R. Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations, just as Congress was recessing for Memorial Day, left Republicans fuming and showed there is still some distance to travel to reach the new spirit of Senate comity that some believed was represented in the judicial pact announced Monday. "It lasted about a day and a half," said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the No. 2 Republican.

Not only that, but the worthless Reid promised Frist there would be no filibuster, and if there was an attempt at a filibuster he would corral enough Dems to break it, and then he buckled to the extreme Dems and said this was not a filibuster. If the Dems are going to claim that every cloture vote in the past was a filibuster, then this certainly was a filibuster, and the Dems lied, and Reid cannot be trusted.

Architects of the agreement that forestalled a showdown over judicial filibusters insisted there was no link between Monday's deal and the filibuster against Mr. Bolton, who is an executive branch nominee and thus not covered under the new arrangement. But there was a clear sense of disappointment that the opportunity for better relations that had seemed so open on Monday was not there as the Senate prepared to leave town. "It is unfortunate," conceded Senator Mike DeWine, Republican of Ohio and a prominent member of the so-called Gang of 14 who drew up the judicial compromise. "It is too bad. But the deal was on judges, not anything else." Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, the Democrat who led the opposition to Mr. Bolton, acknowledged that members of the public watching the Senate were probably perplexed by the new filibuster so soon after the judicial compromise. But he said that the intent of his action was simply to force the administration to surrender information he sought on Mr. Bolton,

Yes, the dems wanted secret intelligence information they could leak and thereby weaken the country even more, and the State Department said they should not have it, and the President backed them up.

and that the vote should not be seen as weakening the judicial agreement. Yet there were clear implications for the judicial compromise. Its authors had said repeatedly that it was a testament to the ability of senators to trust one another. In the aftermath of the Bolton vote, some Republicans were asserting that Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, had been misled by his Democratic counterpart, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. Mr. Reid, they said, had assured Dr. Frist there were sufficient votes to cut off debate and move toward a floor vote on Mr. Bolton. "In this atmosphere of trust, you have to take people's word," said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, as he left the Senate chamber.

They are fools to take the word of any Dem, and particularly to take Reid's word on anything. Reid is a liar.

Aides to Mr. Reid said he had provided no such assurances and, in fact, had warned Dr. Frist a few hours earlier that the effort to force a confirmation vote on Mr. Bolton could fall short.

So Reid's aides lie just like he does.

"I am disappointed that tonight we were unable to have a vote on Bolton," Mr. Reid said. "But it is not the fault of the Democratic caucus. We're not here to filibuster Bolton, we're here to get information." But it was not lost on Republicans that only a few hours before the Bolton vote, Mr. Reid delivered a tough speech at the National Press Club, where he assailed Republicans for pandering to the right wing and described the Senate agreement on judges as a potential "new beginning" for consensus in the Senate. Dr. Frist said "actions speak volumes" in his statement after the Bolton defeat, referring to Senator Reid's speech. "Tonight, after the Democrats have launched into yet another filibuster of a presidential nomination," he said, "those words seem empty and hollow." The Bolton vote came at the conclusion of a day that had shown glimmers of a new approach in the Senate after weeks devoted to the prospect of a floor showdown over eliminating filibusters. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved by a nearly unanimous vote a broad energy policy that both parties hailed after years of disagreement. The Judiciary Committee agreed to a plan to compensate victims of asbestos exposure, another measure that has proven very difficult to draft. And Republicans began the process of getting votes on two other federal court nominees who had been filibustered but were now protected by the compromise. With the prospect of a final vote on the contentious Mr. Bolton, a nominee considered to be unfit by most Democrats and a few Republicans, some senators had hoped to leave Capitol Hill on a high note and start fresh, with a new emphasis on legislation, when they returned in 10 days. They hoped such a conclusion would also put to rest the skepticism of many inside and outside the Senate about whether the judicial deal will hold when it comes under strain in the weeks ahead. But Democrats said they could not surrender on Mr. Bolton without attempting to force cooperation from the White House to provide long sought documents. Senator Barack Obama, the freshman Democrat from Illinois who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, said it was pure White House stubbornness that threatened Mr. Bolton.

And it is now up to the White House to resolve the matter. Give Bolton a recess appointment. It will give him through 2006 to start cleaning house at the UN, and also show the Senate that he is not going to back down to a minority of Dems.

Dr. Steven Taylor: blogged What?! No Peace, Love and Laughter? (Senate Version) - I must confess, this is hardly a surprise. It is, however, an odd strategic choice by the Democrats. On the one hand, there is the chance that maybe, just maybe, with more time and one last fishing expedition, that they can find some information that will finally derail Bolton. On the other, the odds are that Bolton will be nominated. Given that fact, it is odd that the Democrats have allowed themselves to be associated with a filibuster the same week as the compromise over the judicial nominees. Of course, the Democrats insist this isn’t a filibuster. Indeed, both a letter from Senator Biden and a statement by Senator Reid have pointed out how this isn’t a filibuster.

Patterico blogged Wasn’t that whole flibuster compromise with Democrats supposed to be about re-establishing trust? For example, just after the deal was announced, Sen. Lindsey Graham told Chris Matthews that he thought it would help with the Bolton confirmaton. Now, Democrats have apparently filibustered Bolton — though they have denied that they are doing so. Is the trust still there? Graham, for one, seems to think not. And you believed that, Sen. Graham. Sucker. P.S. Then again, Fox News is reporting tonight that Sen. Graham and Sen. DeWine signed on to the deal at the explicit request of the White House, which wasn’t sure that Arlen Specter would vote for the nuclear option if push came to shove. Apparently Sens. Graham and DeWine were asked to join the group and get the best deal they could get — which wasn’t very good. If this is true, it is yet another miscalculation by the Bush Administration. The GOP should have forced Specter to vote. Had he voted the wrong way, that would have been his last day as Judiciary Committee Chairman. He wouldn’t dare.