I guess we can stop worrying about the filibuster battle now, which is fine by me. I’m not a big fan of the deal that the Dems made, but I’m not a big fan of relying on filibusters either. Kinda sad to think that this fight, in which both sides were making principled stands and unwilling to compromise, ended with a bipartisan display of political cowardice. In the end though, our side got the slightly better deal.
With or without the deal in place, it’s definitely not in the President’s best interest for the public to see how nutty his picks for the Federal bench are. Now that the public’s interest has been piqued, I wonder if the Dems will be able to get some additional floor time to publicly debate the three certain-to-be-confirmed judges. The GOP’s strongest hand during all of this was that the public really doesn’t give a damn about what happens in the Senate, but I’m sure there’s plenty of people who will tune in now just to see what all the fuss was about.