There are some highlights of
Howard Dean's interview with AP today.
Dean was hesitant to call the compromise a win for his party.
"It's a real test of whether this is a real long-term agreement. That will come when we find out if the president consults with the Democrats" before sending future nominees to the Senate, including a possible Supreme Court choice.
He was more forceful in describing the impact on the Republicans.
"The potential is that we loosened the death grip the right wing had on the Republican Party," Dean said. "It was clearly a loss for the president because he was getting accustomed to ramming things through the House and the Senate without any confrontation."
Loosened the death grip indeed, that is the key element of this victory.
On other issues...
"African-Americans are annoyed with the Democratic Party because we ask them for their votes four weeks before the election instead of being in the community now and that's a mistake I'm trying to fix," he said. "There's a new generation of African-American leaders and a new generation of African-Americans. We can't go out and say could you vote for us because we were so helpful during the civil rights era."
The Democratic chairman expressed admiration for one Republican: first lady Laura Bush, who has taken a more active role for the administration.
"She's an asset, it's a smart move on their part," Dean said. "People like her, I like her. She's frank, she doesn't toe the party line, she's not a captive of the right wing. She's probably the best salesman they've got."