Frist never had the votes for "nuclear option"

[AnnInLa]

Firedoglake.com is reporting from TIME that Frist never had the votes to fire up that threatened "nuclear option." Click thru on site:

www.firdoglake.com

A series of terrible leadership moves have ensued. There was Frist’s effort to deploy the "nuclear option" — that is, to perform radical surgery on the Senate’s filibuster rules in order to allow votes on President Bush’s more extreme judicial appointments. But the nuclear option was thwarted when 14 Senate moderates cut a deal to keep the rules and allow votes on some of the appointees. "We saved him on that," said a G.O.P. staff member involved in the negotiations. "Frist never had the votes he needed for the nuclear option."

Great. For all of you who fell for the "vote for cloture or we’ll use the nuclear option in the Senate" bluff, I hate you. Just FYI.

[C_U_L8R]

1. Shame on our side

for caving in

[BlooInBloo]

2. I take this as more a statement about wussy Democratic senators...

... than anything else...

Fight the fights that are worth fighting - not just the ones you think you can win. When you do so, you'll find that there are a lot more winnable fights than you realized.

[Deep13]

3. son of a bitch

Course he could be lying just to make us hate D senators.

[Beelzebud]

4. and people wondered why some of us were so pissed about the non-action

during the Alito debacle.

SHAME ON D.C. DEMS FOR NOT REPRESETING THEIR CONSTITUANTS.

[stop the bleeding]

5. .

:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:


Am I the only one here is steaming over how easily our side gave up??


:nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke::nuke:

[radio4progressives]

6. omg .. i came across the article and posted a thread in gdpolitics of same

title - i posted this last night... i didn't see FDL, i'll have to mosey on over there and seen what it has to say...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2548428

[bowens43]

7. Bullshit. He had the votes.

[onenote]

8. link isn't working: does it say which repubs would've defected

All Frist needed for the nuclear option was 50 votes (Cheney could be the tie breaker). That means at least six repubs would have to "defect" and vote against the nuclear option -- which six?

onenote

[kurth]

9. That's what I always thought

Damn it.

[AndyTiedye]

10. Frist Would Have Gotten As Many Votes as He Needed If It Came Down to It

[BootinUp]

11. Breaking:

and we never had them for filibuster either.

oh my I better suit up for the flames.

[mazzarro]

12. True Or Not, I Think Dems Should Have Challenged The Repukes

Can anyone explain convincingly the difference between the repukes make true on their nuclear option threat - thus eliminating the possibility of filibustering judicial nominees and the current quick folding (wussing) of democrats on all judicial nominees?
The way I see things now, it probably will be more easy on us, mentally, if we already know that the filibuster is no more and we don't have to waste our time and efforts appealing to democratic senators who will, nonetheless, ignore all our pleas and vote for any judicial scumbag that is presented by b**sh and the repukes.

[dansolo]

13. I always said that the Dems should have called his bluff

I never believed he had the votes. That, and the real threat of slowing down the Senate to a crawl with procedural tactics, could have enabled us to prevent Alito from getting onto the Supreme Court (Roberts wasn't stoppable) And if we were no longer going to even try and filibuster, at least we could have had the Repubs eliminate it from their own arsenal.

[Ouabache]

14. what a difference a few months makes

I'm sure GOP doesn't have the votes NOW.

[Generic Other]

15. GRRRR Damn timid ninnies

:banghead:

[Crazy Guggenheim]

16. Here's the link to TIme.

http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,1179318,00.html

A series of terrible leadership moves have ensued. There was Frist's effort to deploy the "nuclear option" — that is, to perform radical surgery on the Senate's filibuster rules in order to allow votes on President Bush's more extreme judicial appointments. But the nuclear option was thwarted when 14 Senate moderates cut a deal to keep the rules and allow votes on some of the appointees. "We saved him on that," said a G.O.P. staff member involved in the negotiations. "Frist never had the votes he needed for the nuclear option."