If you haven't noticed already, the Gang of 14 came to an end on Tuesday night. With Mike De Wine and Lincoln Chafee decisively voted out of office, the Gang of 14 shrinks to a Gang of 12, and therefore not a gang at all. What does it mean?
Over on the GOP side of things, I am thinking the demise of the Gang fo 14 will be welcomed, see Hugh Hewitt, for instance, who blames Senator John McCain who "cobbled together the Gang of 14 "compromise" that in fact destroyed the ability of the Republican Party to campaign on Democratic obstructionism while throwing many fine nominees under the bus." Strong words.
But the bigger question is raised: will the GOP again become the party of the reckless, wanton filibuster?
Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms are out of the Senate, so no one will be in the Senate to beat the Bible against a desk to the tune of "Throw the Jew Down the Well" all night long when legislation comes up that the GOP just can't let by. And Bill Frist will no longer be the Senate Majority leader, nor will he be in the Senate, so it seems unlikely that the "nuclear option" of eliminating the filibuster will be considered.
Can the GOP become a party that filibusters things? Well, first, it might not need to. After all, the President has his veto pen on which GOP senators can rely, and the lack of a GOP majority in either house will probably make him less wary of using it.
But this is politics after all, and it's evident that they won't be able to simply rely on the veto pen when serious party-line measures come up. An unwillingness to sign a bill could be damaging to the President in some circumstances, and this might force the Senate to rely on other measures.
So, if you were a senator that was in favor of Frist's nuclear option and changing the Senate's rules of procedure, can you in good conscience filibuster legislation?
Perhaps it's an apples and oranges contrast - the Frist team only opposed the fiilibustering of judicial nominees. But it looks a little inconsistent to say that you'll hold up the majority party's legislation when you spent much of the past five years promoting the message that you couldn't give a damn about what the minority party had to say.