I’m chillin’ like Matt Dillon

Obviously, I firmly believe that the Coalition of the Chillin’ has been vindicated.

Here’s precisely how the Democrats got backed into a corner: the Gang of 14 made the stipulation that a nominee to the federal court could be filibustered only for “extraordinary circumstances.” At the time, many on the Right clamoring for the “nuclear option” seethed that the Democrats could make “extraordinary circumstances” anything they wanted to block a nominee.

Not true: by its very syntax, “extraordinary circumstances” implied that the criteria to block a nominee would be reasonable to the average American, an acceptable disqualifier to the federal bench. For the filibustered judges, as well as Samuel Alito, the Democrats couldn’t find the foothold to raise policy differences to the “extraordinary” level. (The judiciary committee Dems embarrassed themselves trying to attack Judge Alito on the quality of his jurisprudence.) The Gang of 14 deal all but assured that the President’s judicial nominees will get a fair vote. It’s a big win.

More – AJ Strata is gathering opinions for a Carnival of the Coalition; here’s an entry from Coalition founder Mark Coffey.