Interim Status on "Saving the Republic"

There are several quick comments on the recent votes to dislodge the logjam of nominations in the Senate.

1) So far the deal has worked pretty well - we've (the American people) have gotten a couple of pretty good judges confirmed after several years of petty delay. but

2) There are a couple of big boulders in the road ahead - including the Bolton nomination - which is not in the same class but certainly important.

3) Sheets and some of his colleagues can certainly not be accused of lowering their level of rhetoric. The senior senator from New York - whose antics are always a bit sophomoric - has lived up to his reputation. I often wonder what it would be like to live in his world where cataclyism invades one's every breath. The seat he inhabits is not in the line of Roscoe Conklin - that was the Moynihan/Clinton seat - but his rhetoric is often in the spirit of the man who commented in the 1880s - Those who fear the allure that patriotism has for scalawags and scofflaws, have not noticed the clarion call that reform has for these same people.

Twain's quote was better - "nothing need's reforming so much as other people's habits."

4) Even with the deal, if it holds up, the real tests are to come - especially when the first Supreme Court nominee is in place.

5) Finally, the deal may have increased the number of no votes, at least for some of the nominees. With the deal in place some mid-leaning dems may have felt no obligation to consider these issues fairly.