Antietam or Cuban Missile Crisis...you be the judge

My two cents…

Only time will tell if the deal means the Democrats lost this battle and the deal allowed them to save face (Cuban Missile Crisis) or whether it just postpones an inevitable battle (Antietam) of this same issue at some latter date. I suspect the latter…

I will risk using an inappropriate Civil War analogy here…This reminds me of the numerous blunders by Union generals during the Civil War who repeatedly had their enemy outnumbered and weakened and were in a position to deal crushing defeats to the Confederates. However, being timid and overly cautions these generals lost the initiative, did not seize the day and prolonged the conflict making the war much more bloody and costly than it needed to be. For instance, the battle of Antietam (military historians are free to add or correct me here) saw McClellan overestimate Lee’s strength. Being overly cautious and risk averse, he did not commit his forces into battle during a crucial moment even though he greatly outnumbered Lee’s forces. This caused him to lose the initiative, allowed the enemy to regroup and live to fight another day.

The Union had McClellen and the Republicans have McCain…
(the difference being McCain was never appointed to this position he has tried to seize leadership by usurping Frist)…

While recognizing the limits of analogies, I believe the Republicans had the initiative, had the numbers, and had the Democrats back-peddling and now the “squishy seven” led by McCain have prevented the Republicans from dealing a decisive blow to the judicial filibuster and it will likely come back to haunt them.

Like Antietam I believe the “Deal” was a victory for Republicans, but a costly one (two nominees likely lost) and it will prolong this conflict over the filibuster and which will likely explode with even more force and devastation in the midst of a Supreme Court nomination battle. The Republicans will likely regret not having put this issue to rest here and now.

Of course McCain and company would prefer to use the Cuban Missile Crisis analogy. With two powers minutes away from “pushing the button” he, a modern day JFK, rushes in and saves the day by initiating a compromise that prevents the utter devastation of the “nuclear option.”

Perhaps this is the correct model. I don’t know, but I doubt it. While the stakes are high, they are not quite as high as during the Cuban Missile Crisis. While it is possible that the Dems are merely retreating from battle and the deal was a face saving matter I don’t believe that is the likely explanation. There is too much at stake for them. They have more to lose by letting sound jurists on the court than they do in losing a Senate showdown.

They will likely try to use the judicial filibuster again…but only after seeking to destroy the career and character of the next Supreme Court nominee first…then if that doesn’t work they will save the filibuster as their last line of defense.

Lets just hope McClellan…I mean McCain isn’t there to prevent the Republicans from doing the right thing next time around.