Advantage Daschle

As MyDD noted yesterday, Daschle won Round 1 of the Estrada Filibuster. SML Frist had threatened to keep the Senate in session over the upcoming two-week recess, but was unable to follow through on his threat.

And that wacky Hatch keeps cracking me up:

Mr. Hatch said his only guess at how things could be resolved would be for some Democrats to split with their party and vote to end the filibuster.

Hmm, I can think of another way this can be resolved.

Daschle has been stellar, as is often the case (despite all you Daschle haters out there). While his calm gentlemanly demeanor frustrates many of you, it is the perfect contrast to Hatch's temper tantrums and Bush's whining.

As to how this filibuster will play out electorally -- it won't. Bush's war all but assures that a panicked public is worrying only about silly things like duct tape. This is far too esoteric a topic to have mass repercussions. And as for the Latino vote, I can't help but laugh when white Republicans tell me how my community will react to something.

Memo: Estrada isn't a rallying point with Latinos. You know what is? The Pope coming out against war. Just about every Latino family has a portrait of the Pope hanging on the wall, and his anti-war stance has been getting play in the Spanish-language media. Jesus, we're too smart to be appeased by the token nomination of a single judge. Implying otherwise is nothing short of insulting.

Nah, this filibuster is about throwing some red meat to the Democratic Party faithful -- demonstrating that the party is alive and kicking, and can work together in opposition to Bush's radical right agenda.

The GOP is nowhere near getting the votes to end the filibuster. They've made their point (though no one was listenining). Time to withdraw Estrada's nomination and move on to other matters.

Posted February 14, 2003 08:21 AM | Comments (26)