Remember the Kremlin

Armando at Daily Kos rejoices: "Hagel admits what we all know. Good for him. Sounds like he is a no on Frist's nuclear option.

"Hagel strayed way off the reservation, to the point of completely undermining the Republican argument about judges in this one, beautiful sound-bite. . . .

"So much for the argument that Democrats have engaged in unprecedented obstruction by blocking 10 nominees. As Hagel makes clear, the Republicans' hands are even dirtier because they blocked six times as many Clinton nominees."

Blogs for Bush, not surprisingly, has a different view: "Does Hagel understand that the Constitution clearly states that a judicial nominee is confirmed by a simple majority of the Senate? Doesn't he also understand that Frist is not suggesting that we eliminate all filibusters?

"The Democrats have given no legitimate reason to oppose any of Bush's nominees. They even opposed judicial filibusters in the past. This is not principled opposition. This is partisan skulduggery. How can Hagel give any credence to the Democrats phony position on this issue?"

A poster to Julien's List is mad as hell at the Dems:

"I have completely and utterly HAD IT with spineless Democrats who don't have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to anyone, to anything, or on any principles. It seems the latest trend in the Democratic party - a trend going for the last 5 years - is the 'Me Too! Me Too! Me Too!' bandwagon.

"Under the hand of people like Joe Lieberman and the Democratic Leadership Council, the head of the Democratic team is following, true-and-sure, directly behind the RNC and Bush-Rove-Cheney.They just follow about a year too late to get elected. . . .

I "am sick of hearing about 'moderates' and getting this sort of outcome every time. I am sick of being told people like us have a voice - when actions prove we have none. And I am sick of Democratic Apologists making up excuses for those who cross the aisle time and time and time again."

I wrote recently about the NYT edit page flipping its position on filibusters since the Clinton years. Now Powerline blogger Scott Johnson, in the Weekly Standard, argues that "the pratfalls have reached a kind of perfection in the naked reversals of the laughingstock-liberal Minneapolis Star Tribune and respected liberal former Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale. During the Clinton administration, no newspaper in the country converted Democratic party talking points into editorials more quickly than the Star Tribune. The tradition continues. In an April 24 editorial, the Star Tribune lauded the filibuster and condemned Republican efforts to end it in connection with judicial nominations.

"When portions of President Clinton's legislative program were threatened by the filibuster in 1993, however, the story was different. The Star Tribune's editorial page raged: 'Down the drain goes President Clinton's economic stimulus package, washed away in the putrid flood of verbiage known as a filibuster. Call it a power game. Call it politics as usual. Call it reprehensible.'"

Here is the NYT report on improving the paper's credibility (it's a PDF file). Jeff Jarvis says "the recommendations look to be spot on.