I’m going to offer a radical suggestion: Let’s stop quarrelling about who won, who lost, who deserves praise, who deserves to be horse-whipped. Instead, let’s examine the opportunity that has now opened.

A few days ago, the Democrats, who have been the more skillful spinners, had an advantage. With the help of their allies in the media, they had persuaded a large swath of the public that

*it was Republicans who were breaking with tradition, changing the rules in the middle of the game, and

*attempting to put extremist judges on the bench, and

*threatening a “nuclear option” (thanks a lot, Senator Lott) if they didn’t get their way.

Now is the time for Republican communicators to clear their throats and drive the truthful message that:

*it is the President’s prerogative to nominate judges, and

*it is the Senate’s job to “advise and consent”–to accept or reject, to vote yay or nay, up or down, and

*while filibusters were always a pistol in the minority party’s holster, by longstanding tradition those guns were only to be removed and fired in genuinely extraordinary circumstances, and that

*it was Democrats’ unprecedented and promiscuous use of filibusters to deny nominees their right to be voted on, and to deny Senators their right to cast votes that caused Republicans to threaten to confiscate the filibuster weapons, and

*if this should come to pass and Democrats retaliate by shutting down the government, by punishing average Americans–not to mention children!–who rely on the government, they and they alone must bear the responsibility for such inappropriate and destructive behavior.

If Republicans will only drive these messages now–through the media and to their constituents–there may not be another fight, because Democrats will be reluctant to again attempt to use filibusters as a means to undemocratically establish a new rule that judicial nominees can only be confirmed by super-majorities.

Alternatively, if there is another filibuster fight–say over a Supreme Court nominee–Republicans will be in a much better position to come out on top.