This should be the plan for the next few days in the Senate: Get Priscilla Owen, William Pryor and Janice Rogers Brown confirmed. Get John Bolton confirmed to the post of U.N. Ambassador.

Then start bringing up the other judges to test the Senate's 14 moderates. Will they be filibustered too? Will they be voted up? Down? Let's see what "extraordinary" circumstances are. Is this "deal" really the sell-out it appears to be, or did the GOP get some behind-the-scenes concessions that aren't spelled out in the MOU?

This deal also puts the lie to the Democrat complaints that Pryor, Owen and Brown are "out of the mainstream." Why include them in the "deal" if they're beyond the pale? The answer is, that they aren't now and never were before.

I've got a feeling that this is all going to end badly for Republican judicial nominees. I hope I'm wrong.