Quick Shots: Winning Ugly, But Winning All the Same

Fred Barnes is sounding very much like a Coalition member in the Weekly Standard as he lauds the success of the judicial deal. Quote:

Thanks to the Gang of 14 deal to save the filibuster, a parade of relatively young and attractive conservatives are now being confirmed for the federal appeals courts, putting them in position to be nominated later for vacancies on the Supreme Court.

When the agreement on judicial nominations was struck in May by seven Republican and seven Democratic senators, many conservatives agreed with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid that it was a victory for Democrats. They were wrong. Since the agreement, the three prime targets of Democrats--Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor--have all been confirmed, plus two other less controversial nominees. And more conservatives are in the confirmation pipeline. So while Bush's chances of creating personal investment accounts have faded, his goal of shifting the ideological tilt of the federal judiciary is closer at hand.

Meanwhile, Mickey Kaus has a very thorough and frequently hilarious response to E. J. Dionne's ludicrous assertion that 'Kerry-bashing' is dangerous...