On Filibuster and Stem Cells, GOP Bears Pain of Compromise

The divergent partisan reactions to last week's Senate deal on judicial nominations says less about the substance of the agreement than the mood within the two parties.

Like any plausible compromise, the agreement caused pain for both sides. But conservatives are much more incensed about it. Social conservative leader James Dobson virtually threatened to excommunicate from the Republican Party the seven member senators who supported the accommodation, under which Republicans agreed to oppose a ban on judicial

filibusters so long as Democrats use the tactic only under "extraordinary

circumstances."

Among Democrats, some have claimed outright victory, though that seems more about playing to the cameras than a genuine assessment of the terms of the deal. Many on the left condemned it as a capitulation, among them leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus. Most Democrats seem to regard the deal less as a victory or a defeat than a disengagement that defers the toughest battles.

It's difficult to say substantively that either side won. Democrats achieved their highest objective by maintaining the right to filibuster judicial nominees, at least in principle. In practice, the deal has unquestionably circumscribed that right.

Five of the seven Republican senators who signed on seemed likely to oppose the filibuster ban even without an agreement. But two others, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mike DeWine of Ohio, made it clear that absent the deal, they would have supported the ban -- and would feel free to vote for it if they believed that Democrats violated the extraordinary-

circumstances pledge.

If those two were to switch, perhaps in response to a Democratic filibuster of a future Supreme Court nominee from President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) probably would have the votes to impose the ban. That means the Democratic right to filibuster exists at the sufferance of two relatively conservative Republicans.

The deal also practically ensures confirmation for three Bush appellate court nominees that almost all Democrats fervently oppose. Included in that group is California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, who might be the most ideologically doctrinaire of all of Bush's judicial nominees.

Here is Brown's view of the role of government, as expressed in a 2000 speech: "Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies," she said.