Sen Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the previous chairman of the judicial committee now being led by Sen Arlen (I promise to get floor votes on nominees) Specter (R-PA), discusses the compromise deal made last week in Human Events.

He could be a candidate for the Coalition of the Chillin’ given his take on the current state of affairs:

The judicial filibuster agreement reached by a group of 14 Republican and Democratic senators may be a truce, but it is not a treaty.

Some Republican signatories have already said that they will support the constitutional option if the deal’s “extraordinary circumstances” loophole turns out to be a distinction without a difference compared to past practice. If we return to judicial filibusters—and we all know a Supreme Court vacancy looms—we will return to the constitutional option.

This last part, I believe, has been a cornerstone element for those of us who want to wait and see how this pans out. The democrats can trigger the process by simply overplaying their hand (like they did with Bolton already). Many of us believe it is simply unavoidable for the democrats to overplay their hand – but of course we have to contend with the republicans over reacting because they did not get instant gratification of up or down votes (which is different from the rule change – the former is not predicated on the latter).

I agree with Frist that, one way or another, whether by the self-restraint that once guided us or by the constitutional option, that tradition must return

The only question is are there enough reps who agree with this, are there enough moderate reps who will feel betrayed when ANY judicial filibuster is launched (and that, IMHO, includes Myers and Saad), and will there be enough moderate dems who feel vulnerable to push down a filibuster attempt.

The country is watching.