The morning after...

After a night to sleep on it, I still hate it... still, it is good to know that this rankles Mullah Dobson and deals a serious blow to Frist:

The majority leader, who is considering running for president in 2008, had been under intense pressure not to compromise from conservative groups, some of whom immediately blasted the agreement.

"This Senate agreement represents a complete bailout and betrayal by a cabal of Republicans and a great victory for united Democrats," said James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, the Christian evangelical group.

Frist, however was forced to accept the deal after seven Republicans embraced the compromise and thus denied him the necessary 50 votes he would have needed to change the Senate rules to end judicial filibusters. Republicans now hold 55 seats.

But really, this thing is such a sham... the real fight is for the next SC nominees, and this deal will crumble at the first hint of a filibuster. They know it too:

The senators involved in the talks acknowledged that the agreement would require a great deal of trust since it did not define what constituted the extraordinary circumstances that would permit a filibuster against future judges.

"It is subjective," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who was involved in the negotiations.

TPM concurs:

It's hard for me to see how this deal survives the sort of appointee President Bush seems all but certain to appoint to the Supreme Court.

Yeah... what he said.

You know, with this deal coming on such an important issue where the Dems were clearly in the right and the polls were clearly in their favor, I think I finally understand why some people vote for the Green Party and other fringe liberal groups. Not that I would myself (since we don't have a viable three-party system, any vote not for the Dems is for the Republicans) but I think I now understand their disatifaction with the Democrats' inability to sack-up in fights against the right regardless of whether they are in the majority or minority.

Sigh...