ConfirmThem

By DanCT Posted in Senate Rules — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Roll Call has the following gem:

... in Reid’s corner, he needs to peel away six Republicans to preserve the minority’s right to filibuster judicial nominations. So far, just three GOP Senators — Lincoln Chafee (R.I.), John McCain (Ariz.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine) — have publicly opposed the maneuver.... In an interview with regional reporters from targeted states Friday, Reid said he had a private commitment from a fourth Republican to oppose the nuclear option but declined to name who that person was. He told the reporters that he had four GOP targets remaining, of which two will be needed to outflank Frist.

The remaining GOP targets are Warner, Specter, DeWine and Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.), according to aides and liberal activists.

Two questions:

1) Reid says he has a secret committment from someone outside this group. Is it Collins?

2) Will Frist be able to get three from this group?

My bets are that Specter, DeWine, and Hagel will vote with Frist.

Specter has called what the Democrats are doing a "constitutional revolution," and he is judiciary committee chair. On principle, he can't stand on the Democrats' side. On politics, he doesn't sabotage his own work as committee chair and go down in history as a coward who could have prevented a constitutional revolution but didn't.

DeWine isn't going to pull a Voinovich.

Hagel is thinking about 2008 primaries.