Con-promise

I was just writing a post saying I couldn't make much sense of news reports on the filibuster compromise. Then NRO's Bench Memos published the full Memorandum of Understanding, making it all a lot clearer.

We're getting cloture on Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor, and Priscilla Owen. A resounding No Comment on Saad and Myers. And on the rules change? They punted. An agreement to make no changes during the 109th Congress. Democrats agree not to filibuster except in extraordinary cases, but they've already shown that they consider highly-qualified jurists with bipartisan support to be extraordinary cases.

And the next Supreme Court justice? I recommend we wait until the 110th Congress to nominate one, and make sure we have a few more actual conservative senators this time.

As for my open letter to Senator McCain, we'll watch his votes very carefully for the rest of his term. If he fails to vote to confirm Owens, Pryor, and Brown, my threat will certainly stand.

On a side note, I notice that in the memo Bill Frist is "Majority Leader," and Harry Reid is "Democratic Leader." I guess, after all that nonsense about the Democrat senators representing a larger proportion of the population, the Dems are afraid to admit that they are, in fact, a minority?

UPDATE: In two different NRO forums, two different people made the same point. Here's Ramesh Ponnuru:

Here's what the Democrats commit to in the future: "Nominees should only be filibustered under extraordinary circumstances, and each signatory must use his or her own discretion and judgment in determining whether such circumstances exist." Here's what the Republicans commit to: "In light of the spirit and continuing commitments made in this agreement, we commit to oppose the rules changes in the 109th Congress. . ."

So: Democrats can filibuster nominees in "extraordinary circumstances," to be determined according to the "discretion and judgment" of Ralph Neas--I mean, of each individual senator. Republicans, on the other hand, are not getting any wiggle room to vote for a rules change in "extraordinary circumstances"--such as the Democrats' abuse of their wiggle room. It looks as though the majority party got taken in this deal.

Forgot to weigh that one on the scale, eh? McCain remains in very hot water with me.