All over but the shouting

The Senate has voted 65-32 to end debate on the nomination of Judge Janice Rogers Brown for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. This, of course, clears the way for her confirmation.
JOHN adds: I don’t get it. The “compromise” agreed to by fourteen Republican and Democratic Senators specifically provided that Brown would not be filibustered. This means that 32 out of 45 Democrats voted to turn their backs on the compromise. I haven’t been able to find the roll call, but I assume that all seven Democrats who signed the agreement voted for cloture, if they voted at all (three Senators didn’t vote) . That would mean that just a handful of additional Democrats voted to uphold the agreement made by their brethren. As in the case of Judge Owen, voting to continue the filibuster has little practical effect, if any; they obviously can and will vote against Brown on the merits. So maybe they were casting a symbolic vote in favor of the principle that it is proper to filibuster judicial nominees.

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