A Horse In There Somewhere: What To Do About "The Deal"

In the words of the old Ronald Reagan joke, there's gotta be a horse somewhere in the stinky deal of the new axis of weasels that is the moderate wing of the Republican Senate. The Spousal Unit advises thus:

Although the compromise looks like a setback for the President, he can and must seize it and use it for his advantage. Here is how:

A. The “compromise” will in effect allow Owen, Brown, and Pryor to be confirmed.
B. The “compromise” still permits filibusters against “extraordinary” [i.e., out of the mainstream, conservative] nominees.
C. Thus, Owen, Brown, and Pryor, though very committed conservative nominees, are by the terms of the compromise admitted to be “non-extraordinary.” Any other conservative nominees the President sends up who get through without a filibuster will also fall within bounds.
D. The real prize here is the Supreme Court. Probably by June the Chief Justice will leave. All the Senate jockeying has the Supreme Court’s future in mind. The Dems. and “compromise” Republicans are really trying to prevent the President from naming a strongly committed conservative to the high court.
E. Therefore as soon as a Supreme Court seat opens up, the President should confine his list of potential nominees to Owen, Brown, and Pryor!
F. The point is that the compromisers who hold the balance of power cannot resort to a filibuster against any of these appointees because they will already have agreed that they are not “extraordinary.” The “compromise” Republicans – McCain et al. – will end up voting for Owen, Brown, and Pryor for appeals court seats. Therefore they will be virtually compelled to oppose a filibuster if any of them are soon promoted.
G. Moreover, the President should quickly send the Senate as many uncompromising conservative nominations to other open seats as possible. The Senate has placed itself with this “compromise” in a position that will make it difficult to unreasonably delay the whole confirmation process for the next group of nominees. The potential Supreme Court nominee list should be drawn from this growing list.
H. If the Democrats break their “compromise” commitment, the President of course will have a very powerful political weapon against them in the election cycle next year.