Wherein Joe Klein Gives Me a Migraine…

The latest Joe Klein opus in Time is irritating for so many reasons (although it’s nice to know, I suppose, that "conventional wisdom Joe" has caught up with the rest of the world on the whole Frist sucks as majority leader opinion), but this really leapt off the page:

A series of terrible leadership moves have ensued. There was Frist’s effort to deploy the "nuclear option" — that is, to perform radical surgery on the Senate’s filibuster rules in order to allow votes on President Bush’s more extreme judicial appointments. But the nuclear option was thwarted when 14 Senate moderates cut a deal to keep the rules and allow votes on some of the appointees. "We saved him on that," said a G.O.P. staff member involved in the negotiations. "Frist never had the votes he needed for the nuclear option."

Great. For all of you who fell for the "vote for cloture or we’ll use the nuclear option in the Senate" bluff, I hate you. Just FYI.   (And yes, it is Joe Klein, so I’m taking it with a grain of salt.  But I have a headache, nonetheless.  And a crazy need to go out and kick something.)

By the way, a huge thank you to everyone here at FDL who fought the good fight on this — it needs to be said again, you guys rock.  Hat tip to Urban Pirate for catching this in the Klein article and giving me a heads up.

And if you haven’t had enough crabbiness this morning (lord knows I’m right there with the whole cranky thing today), Jayt found this news snippet on MSNBC regarding the Supremes’ decision to deny the Padilla hearing on mootness grounds.  So much for that whole "full and fair" hearing thing.  (UPDATE:  TChris has more at TalkLeft.)

UPDATE:  Mwahaha.  Good one, TiredFed.

Related posts:

1. Ezra Klein Plays His Part in the “Co-Op Squeeze Play”
2. Klein on How Lieberman Went Bad: It’s All Jane’s Fault
3. Reply to Ezra Klein on the Importance of the Public Option and Exchanges (Part II)
4. Ezra Klein Still Thinks the 2001 Bush Tax Cuts were a Victory for Centrists
5. Ezra Klein Doesn’t Know Why the Public Plan is So Important