Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) warned Democrats yesterday that he will not hesitate to trigger the so-called “nuclear option” to enforce an eleventh-hour deal that a centrist coalition of 14 lawmakers struck Monday on President Bush’s stalled judicial nominees.
....Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), two of the seven Republican signatories to the memorandum of understanding on the judges, backed up Frist, threatening to vote for the option should Democrats attempt to block nominees in circumstances that the two lawmakers would not consider “extraordinary.”
So the Compromise, which failed to define "extraodinary circumstances," is subject to individual interpretation. In other words, "extraordinary circumstances" means whatever uber-right Republicans want it to mean. The phrase doesn't define when Democrats can filibuster. It defines when Republicans say they can't.
If I drew up a contract and failed to define a term so critical to the "meeting of the minds" of the parties, I'd be sued for malpractice in a heartbeat.
More from the Hill:
“Let me be very clear. The constitutional option remains on the table,” Frist said to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (Nev.) yesterday morning on the Senate floor, using the Republican-preferred term for the controversial tactic.
Reid had a different perspective: “The nuclear option is gone for our lifetime. We don’t have to talk about it anymore.” “It remains an option,” Frist said. “I will not hesitate to use it if necessary.”
Graham and DeWine later echoed Frist in a press conference after yesterday’s weekly Republican luncheon. “The nuclear option is on the table and remains on the table,” DeWine said.
If this falls apart so soon, it will be egg all over the faces of the Centrists, while Priscilla Owen laughs from her perch on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. What a deal.