Voting for democracy.(POLITICS)

THE Democratic position on the filibuster comes down to this: Senators should not be allowed to vote up or down on judges, because judges have to stay in the business of keeping voters from being able to decide policy issues. Anti-democratic ends justify anti-democratic means.

Almost everything else in the debate is a diversion. The text of the Constitution does not forbid the Senate to let the majority confirm judges, as Democrats preposterously insist; nor does it require it. Only somewhat less preposterously, the Democrats and their pundits have been arguing that the logic and structure of the Constitution support the filibustering of judges: The Constitution is designed to throw up counter-majoritarian obstacles to action. That's true at a high altitude of abstraction; it does not mean that the particular obstructionist device of filibustering judges is constitutionally required or wise. Filibusters have never been routinely used against judicial nominees--never, that is, until Senate Democrats decided to block as many of the important judicial nominees of this administration as they could.

There is no reason in principle to reject compromise. But no real compromise has been offered. Senate Democrats have floated various proposals, under all of which they reserve the right to filibuster "extremist" nominees. Their promiscuous use of the filibuster against "extremist" nominees demonstrates their elastic definition of the term. If Republicans accept these proposals, the Democrats will carry on filibustering--and Republicans will face the ...