GANG OF FOURTEEN

So now it has come to pass that a gang of fourteen has taken control of the Senate. With this deal, the seven Republicans and seven Democrats have wrested control away from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and even Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. Frist will get votes on three judges he wants to approve, but no two others, while Reid will have to accept the fact that three will get their vote (and, I believe, approval) while being content with blocking the other two.

It is a classic compromise that does nothing but kick the can down the road. For, in the end, this is not about the judges in question. This is about the Big Kahuna, the U.S. Supreme Court. The point was made even more clearly this morning with the widely circulated picture of Chief Justice Rehnquist being wheeled about as he suffers from the debilitating effects of cancer and the treatments for same. Soon, George W. Bush will have to make some Supreme Court nominations. Soon, the Senate will be faced with a Supreme Court nominee. I would be absolutely shocked, stunned and amazed if the President's nominee did not fit into the Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia mold. Clearly, the "extraordinary circumstances" described in yesterday's deal would be cited by most, if not all, of the seven Democrats whose signatures can be found on that deal under such a scenario. Then we would find ourselves right back in the fix we were in before the deal.

When the new Scalia makes his way to the Senate there will be no way the Democrats can allow him to pass. For them it will be the political equivalent of the Battle of Verdun, 1916. Every effort will be made to turn a Republican against him (or her) in committee. Failing that, the filibuster will be employed. At that point, the Constitutional Option (as the rules change is called by it's proponents) will be on the table again. Can Lindsey Graham and Mike DeWine stand against it at that time? Doesn't that make 50, with Vice-President Cheney casting tie-breaking vote number 51?

If the Democrats mean to stop this Administration from altering the balance of power in the Federal Judiciary, and they do, then this deal should be seen simply as a temporary armistice. Hostilities to resume at some future date, when one Justice or another succumbs to the inevitably of a finite lifespan.