Bump and Update: It sounds like the Senate is getting ready to sell us down the river. They report being close on a compromise. From the quote below, it sounds like it's all done but defining the "extreme circumstances" that would allow a Democrat to filibuster a Supreme Court or other judicial nominee. In other words, if that's all they are "struggling with," they've already caved in on letting almost of all of Bush's judges in, including Owen and Rogers Brown.

"I don't know whether we're 10 percent there or 70 percent there. It's still very fluid," said Sen. Ken Salazar, a Colorado Democrat. "There are language issues and conceptual issues that people are still struggling with."

If it goes down this way, it's a huge loss for the Democrats. They will have put a bunch of extremists on the federal bench, and only preserved the right to filibuster in "extreme circumstances" and more importantly, only through the 109th Congress. All of the Supreme Court justices except perhaps Rehnquist can hold out until 2007 - and then the Republicans will make the same move to end the filibuster they are making now and we'll be back at ground zero.

I'm sorry to see Colorado Ken Salazar be one of the leaders of the effort.