The Final Countdown... Averted
A friend of mine emailed me (remember, you can always leave comments here on the site) with this thought: "In the final
analysis, isn't a good compromise one where no one comes away happy?" Indeed, I gotta say I feel neither overly triumphant nor terribly downtrodden over this, and I agree with Kos's final assessment of the unvarnished facts (as he has them, at least):

But here are the plain, unspun facts: Democrats hold 44 seats in the 100 seat Senate. One independent sides with the Democrats, giving Dems a 10-seat deficit. Reid had 49 votes. He needed 51 to defeat Frist's nuclear option. Reid needed at least two of four undecided Republicans. Had Reid come up short, the filibuster would be dead in judicial matters. If the filibuster was dead, Bush would've been able to put anyone on the Supreme Court. Anyone. Radical Christian Rightist James Dobson is demanding the right to choose the next Supreme Court nominee. Dobson's biggest enemy is the filibuster. Hence, he forced Frist to engage in the nuclear option. Because of the deal, Dobson can't choose the next Supreme Court justice. Bush's choice, if too extreme, faces the prospect of a filibuster. In order to save face, Republicans have gotten up or down votes on most of the handful of judges who are currently being filibustered. It's a price, but a relatively small one to pay to protect the filibuster during the next Supreme Court battle. Given that we have a 10-seat deficit in the Senate, that's no small feat.

And all this has helped to paint this administration and their Congressional supporters as being a bit too power hungry, leaving a bad taste in many peoples' mouths:

It will likely get lost in the filibuster headlines, but USA Today has some sober news for Republicans in this morning's paper: "President Bush's approval ratings for handling the economy, Iraq and Social Security have fallen to the lowest levels of his White House tenure." Meanwhile, according to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll taken Friday through Sunday, Bush's job approval ratings dropped six points during the month of May, to 46 percent. That missed by just one point his lowest rating to date for the ongoing USA Today poll.

You gotta take victory where you can get it... then build on it.