Oh, so close. The deal has done nothing -- except cost some Republican nominees their confirmation for no payoff whatsoever. Certainly, Roberts would have been confirmed deal or no deal.

Brown and Owen wouldn't be potential nominees.

OJ:

I wonder if your thinking is running along the same lines as mine: We nominate Brown, let the Dems hijack the process for a while, and then use the agreement's loopholes to dump the filibuster and get her confirmed. Karl Rove must be drooling over the prospect of seeing the Democrats obstruct Senate business to keep a black female off the Supreme Court.

Agreed, this deal was brilliant. I can't believe the Democrats have allowed themselves to be put into this position.

Brown and Owen wouldn't be on the appeals bench without the deal. Unless David gets every last wingnut judge-wannabe past the Senate, he thinks the deal is worthless.

When 60 right-wing Repubs sit in the Senate, David's dream will come true. For now we live in the real world.

I liken Bush to Jackie Robinson. Both withstood the slings and arrows for a cause they believed in and both are expert players of their respective game.

Robinson is a hero of mine. I remember going to Ebbets field as a kid and saw how an ordinary looking man could stand in a big field surrounded by tens of thousands of people who hated him passionately and not only play the game, but play it better than anyone else.

Jackie Robinson deserves the thanks of a grateful nation as does our president.

Casey:

Speak for yourself. The blogosphere lives in the blogosphere and reality rarely intrudes.

So, Casey's defense of the deal is that is does, in fact, tie the president's hands by preventing his wingnut nominees from getting confirmed. Matt's defense is that this is a good deal because it is so bad that when it inevitably explodes it will get us what we should have gotten six months ago. OJ's is that Republican moderates, including OJ's 2008 presidential candidate, were always going to knife the president in the back so that this was the best we could have done and, in the end, it hasn't done any real harm. ERP's defense is that Bush is the first black president.

Yeah, that's quite the win you guys got yourself there.

The conservatives want to keep the tradition of filibusters.

There's a truth. The main concern of the Gang of 14 was to preserve the prerogatives of the Senate, even if they have to stab the president and the party in the back to do so.

Yes, conservatism is about permanent institutions and traditions, not personalities and immediate gratification.