5.25.2005
The Center Holds (WashingtonPost.com)
EDITORIAL
Tuesday, May 24, 2005; Page A16
THERE IS NO guarantee that the cease-fire in the judicial nominating wars negotiated by 14 U.S. senators and announced last night will stick. How could there be? But the agreement by seven Republicans and seven Democrats, with Virginia's John W. Warner (R) playing a leading role, nonetheless is a great achievement. It is a demonstration, in an era of increasingly bitter partisanship, of what can still be accomplished through negotiation and the proffer of a modicum of trust across the aisle. Interest groups on both sides railed against compromise and threatened its architects; Senate leaders of both parties and the president did more to obstruct a deal than to facilitate it. The 14 senators nonetheless managed to put principle above self-protection.
"The first question that most of the media are going to ask us: Who won and who lost?" said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of the 14. "The Senate won, and the country won."
(More ... The Center Holds) ¶ 08:02
Tuesday, May 24, 2005; Page A16
THERE IS NO guarantee that the cease-fire in the judicial nominating wars negotiated by 14 U.S. senators and announced last night will stick. How could there be? But the agreement by seven Republicans and seven Democrats, with Virginia's John W. Warner (R) playing a leading role, nonetheless is a great achievement. It is a demonstration, in an era of increasingly bitter partisanship, of what can still be accomplished through negotiation and the proffer of a modicum of trust across the aisle. Interest groups on both sides railed against compromise and threatened its architects; Senate leaders of both parties and the president did more to obstruct a deal than to facilitate it. The 14 senators nonetheless managed to put principle above self-protection.
"The first question that most of the media are going to ask us: Who won and who lost?" said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of the 14. "The Senate won, and the country won."
(More ... The Center Holds) ¶ 08:02
