An Unwelcome Compromise

Here's Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid: "We have sent President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the radical arm of the Republican base an undeniable message: Abuse of power will not be tolerated, will not be tolerated by Democrats or Republicans. And your attempt -- I say to the vice president and to the president -- to trample the Constitution and grab absolute control is over."

Here's Majority Leader Bill Frist: "Our Constitution . . . simply requires up or down votes on judicial nominees. So in that regard, the agreement announced tonight falls short of that principle. It falls short. It has some good news and it has some disappointing news. And it will require careful monitoring."

Here's White House spokesman Scott McClellan: "Many of these nominees have waited for quite some time to have an up or down vote and now they are going to get one. That's progress. We will continue working to push for an up or down vote on all our nominees."

Howard Kurtz has reactions from across the blogosphere, including his own, in his washingtonpost.com column.

Bush Speaks

This morning in Rochester, Bush himself weighed in on the compromise -- but didn't acknowledge half of it.

He said the decision to vote on three of his nominees was "progress," but otherwise reiterated that all his nominees deserve an "up or down vote."

Bush and Karzai

Of course, some people are sticking to the White House script.

Yesterday in the East Room, President Bush's flowery language could not obscure the fact that he was ultimately giving Afghan President Hamid Karzai the back of his hand. For which Karzai thanked him profusely.

Michael A. Fletcher writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush rebuffed Afghan President Hamid Karzai's effort to gain greater control over U.S. military operations in his country yesterday, as the two leaders endorsed an agreement allowing the United States to continue its policy of simply informing Afghan officials before launching raids in Afghanistan. . . .

"Bush also turned down Karzai's request for Afghanistan to take custody of its citizens being detained by the United States as suspected terrorists, saying that Afghanistan lacks facilities where the suspects 'can be housed and fed and guarded.' . . .

"As he set out for the United States last week, Karzai declared that the report on prisoner abuse 'shocked me totally' and he vowed to press Bush to take 'very, very strong action' against those responsible. In Bush's presence, however, Karzai moderated his language. First installed as president by a U.N. process orchestrated by the United States, Karzai has since won an election but still depends on U.S. support to hold on to power. The target of assassination attempts, he even relies on American bodyguards."

In fact, as Ron Hutcheson writes for Knight Ridder Newspapers, Karzai actually "defended America to the Muslim world Monday, saying reports of prisoner abuse in U.S. detention facilities don't represent the real America."