
TOTAL VICTORY
Today’s 72-25 vote in favor of cloture is a complete and total repudiation of a six-year strategy by Senate Democrats (and a twenty year effort by liberal legal thinkers like Laurence Tribe) to make ideology fair game in judicial confirmations. Senators face elections. They are the candidates. Judges do not face voters and should not have to act like baby-kissing politicians, crusading for votes. And today’s vote makes it clear that now and in the future, judicial nominees do not have to act like political candidates (or be treated like them) in order to be confirmed.
So today’s vote settles the question once and for all — every single qualified nominee who demonstrates a judicial temperament deserves and requires a fair-up-rdown vote on his or her nomination.
Today’s vote should also represent the final repudiation of the Democrats filibuster strategy. Voters have repudiated it at twice at the ballot box, making clear their distaste for obstruction. Finally, after six years, the Democrats caught on.
There’s lots of moaning tonight at DailyKos about needing more Democrats. But the Kossak’s whining proves they still don’t get it. By voting in favor of cloture, Democrats move away from their failed strategy and closer to winning elections. The pro-filibuster left just drags the Democratic party closer and closer to the Howard Dean fringe. So, the far-sighted partisan Republican in me knows that the fight in Washington will continue.
But for today, victory is ours, and we should celebrate it.

