Another pundit declares: “Frist has the votes”

David Brooks slams the mushy moderates in Congress in today’s NY Times and writes about the prospect of a rules change to overcome Senate filibusters of judicial nominees:

Positions will probably harden over the weekend, making a deal less likely tomorrow. The minority leader, Harry Reid, told a small group of us Friday he was cautiously optimistic that he had the votes to defeat the nuclear option, but I think he's wrong. John McCain, Lincoln Chafee, John Warner and maybe Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe will vote against the nuclear option, but none of the other Republicans are likely to. Bill Frist has the votes.

Boy that’s a thin margin but after two days of debate the GOP seems a little emboldened while it appears to me that it’s the Democrats scrambling for a way out. The problem for the Democrats is that they simply cannot take the chance of Bill Frist calling a vote and blocking a filibuster of a future Supreme Court nominee.

Therefore, I’m going to make a prediction: next week when there’s a cloture vote on Priscilla Owen’s nomination, at least six Democrats will vote to stop the filibuster and allow an up-or-down vote. Same with Janice Brown. Harry Reid will publicly express disappointment but secretly he’ll be relieved that the concept of the judicial filibuster will live on for another day.