Nuclear Deal

OK, cooler heads appear to have preailed in the Senate. I've never really believed that the nuclear option would happen, although in the past few days it has appeared more and more likely. If this deal goes through, what will the political fall-out be?

I'm not sure anyone really loses. Frist gets to demonstrate his conservative bona fides, without institutional consequences. GOP moderates flex their muscles. Reid and the Democratic stalwarts still have the filibuster, and for them this was never about Owen and the other appellate judges, anyway, in my opinion, but about the Supreme Court. Democratic moderates show their relevance in an increasingly partisan institution.

Wait--Cheney loses the opportunity to do his presiding officer on the Titanic routine. So I guess maybe he loses? And if I were the president, I wouldn't be so happy about this, given the possible filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee. The nuclear option is untenable in a Supreme Court nomination fight. Did the GOP moderates just throw the president under the bus?