Frist's Filibuster Frustrations

There's not a lot of time to get some blogging in before I no longer get the Saturday, May 28 date stamp, but now that we've made it to the end of the week, we can see that the filibuster issue is just as tenuous as it was when Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist tentatively addressed the compromise signed by the fourteen senators, none of them part of either party's leadership, over President Bush's appeals court judicial nominees. I wasn't terribly impressed by that agreement (and I wasn't the only one, of course), but I did react favorably to the damage it seemed to impart on Frist. I'm not sure the majority leader is out of ammunition, but he didn't follow with his reported plans to challenge the agreement by moving forward with the nomination of William Myers (although he still holds that arrow in his quiver, and we'll see how quickly he pulls it out after the Senate reconvenes in June). Frist's problems seemed to multiply as the week progressed. Democrats delayed the vote on John Bolton, and on Friday, The LA Times called for his resignation. Sunday morning brings a Washington Post examination of Frist's fading influence in the Senate. What senators hear from their constituents over the break may have some influence on how things progress in June, but for now, anything that undermines Bill Frist as George W. Bush's man in the Senate is a welcome development.