Trib op-ed has strategy to defeat repug filibuster moves--it's sad.

[Inland]

I won't provide a link, but Steven Lubet, who is a N'western law prof and occasional writer for the Chicago Tribune op-ed page, has a theory today.

Essentially he says that holding up nominations will, over time, give the republicans enough incentive to bear the political damage from restricting filibusters. In other words, as the number of filibustered increases from ten to twenty to thirty, over time, the repugs will take the leap.

So he suggests letting many of the appellate court judges go to the floor, so that the number waiting stays down at, say, ten, thinking that the repugs won't move against the filibuster for a mere ten judges.

In that event, the filibuster will still be in place when the supreme court nominations come up.

I suppose it depends on one's evaluation of how far the repugs will push, and whether letting some disgusting nominations go by will prevent the move against filibusters, and how bad these nominations are. But it's true that at SOME point, the repugs will go for it and the dems will lose. What they have to do is make it so they never try it, and that might mean letting a number through.