Compromise

Steve Soto thinks the compromise may not be such a bad deal.

Tonight also did something that both Frist and the White House must notice. Keep in mind that Cheney wanted to do away with another piece of congressional power here and move another step closer to the omnipotent imperial presidency, so the White House was fully engaged. Bush didn't get the neutered Senate he and Cheney were hoping for, and instead are being told by the moderates in his own party that two of the seven are dead, and that he and Cheney can have their Owen/Brown/Pryor nutcases for the appellate courts, but no further. Neither Cheney's schemes nor Frist’s presidential ambitions got served tonight.
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And Bill Frist’s 2008 campaign ended tonight. John McCain, with an assist from John Warner and Lindsey Graham, got a chance to make Frist look like a Kool-Aid drinking Taliban cultist tonight, and this has big ramifications for 2008 among the Senate GOP caucus. This was a win-win for McCain, and you will see now a larger and larger block of the Senate GOP caucus splinter away from First and the White House. McCain effectively took over the Senate GOP tonight without having to take on the burden of being Majority Leader.

I think he's right about Frist but I don't think that Frist's presidential ambitions had any steam anyway. We will see. Both Frist and Bush are now officially "lame ducks".