Sen. John McCain, chief architect of the nuclear option compromise, said on television this morning that the compromise is alive and kicking.

McCain said a deal would not block votes on any nominees, but would preserve for the minority party the tools to kill some nominations.

"There would be a commitment to let most of them go" to a vote, McCain said. "It's very possible that there would be a vote on all of them, it's also possible that one or more of them would not reach the Senate floor because of other difficulties that their nomination faces."

Sen. McCain echoed Colorado Senator Ken Salazar's remarks from the other day. What's holding up the compromise is not which judges to confirm of those previously rejected, but the definition of the limited "extreme circumstances" in which Dems could filibuster.

"We're having difficulty coming up with exact language which would portray that desire. It's tough," McCain told "Fox News Sunday."

So the nominations of extremists like Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown would go through, and the filibuster - in extreme circumstances which are as yet undefined - would be preserved only through the 109th Congress, until 2006. That's no compromise, that is capitulation.

Call your Senator, leave a voicemail today. Tell them to roll the dice. No retreat, no surrender.