I wrote both on the blog and in e mails to Senators concerned that before anyone thought about helping the Democrats implant a judicial filibuster into the rules of Senate procedure, they should pay heed to the way the conservative Republican base was thinking about the issue. In plain terms, it was we conservative Republicans who got the job done in 2000, 2002 and 2004; in spite of all predictions to the contrary, under the leadership of President Bush we conservatives pulled off what was said to be impossible...elect a Republican President against a sitting Vice President during "peace and prosperity": deliver increased GOP Congressional majorities in a first-term mid-term election; re-elect a President with increased Congressional majorities in the face of a relentless MSM onslaught against the GOP. Our reward for this effort was supposed to be a GOP which would finally show some backbone and get conservative things done in Washington. The filibuster compromise betrayed this trust...and now conservative Republicans are preparing to demand their pound of flesh over it:

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Conservatives who had warned Republicans about compromising on President Bush's judicial nominees delivered another message the day after the deal: Those who betrayed us will pay a political price...

..."I think McCain is going to suffer," Hurley said. "He's a great war hero and I think he meant well, but it will be proven to be a mistake."

McCain is finished in the Republican Party; he can hang on to his Senate seat in Arizona (though we'll try to do something about that in 2010, unless he wisely chooses to retire at that time), but he has absolutely zero chance of getting the Republican nomination in 2008. Any of the Spineless Seven who harbored Presidential ambitions can pretty much hang it up...unless they recant their foolishness and start acting like solid Republicans instead of "Democrat-lite". Some people on the right are, in my view, going too far in condemning the whole GOP for the actions of these seven dupes...but my view is that the punishment should both fit the crime, and be levied against the transgressors.