Let's grit our teeth and thank them

This is the part I hate - sucking it up and thanking Snowe and Collins for doing what any decent person wouldn't have to think twice about. I'm talking about not following Dobson & Frist down the nuclear path. As the Princeton fillibuster students commented,

[I]t is a strange sort of victory, isn't it? If you believe that Senator Frist's nuclear option would have been illegal and unprecedented - as we do, along with many constitutional scholars and political analysts - then the Republican leadership should not have considered it in the first place. Is it a victory when the world is returned to what it should be? Do we celebrate normalcy?

And there are so many, many reasons to be furious that they're sitting in those seats. We have them to thank for Owens. And Rice. And Gonzales. And Gale Norton. And the bankruptcy bill, and the Bush energy policy. And for putting Frist in a leadership position in the first place. Read yesterday's Washington Post piece (free registration required) on how power has tilted to the right, and then this Alterman masterpiece on how to lose a country in 7 easy steps, and reflect how Snowe and Collins are enabling the right-wing junta.

Then pick up the phone and thank them (grumble) for doing something right last week. They're going to be under enormous pressure to backpedal on that compromise.

Olympia Snowe....622-8292
Susan Collins......622-8414

Thank you. (Grumble.)
UPDATE: Oh, yeah, I almost forgot - and what do we get in exchange for renting our senate seats to Republicans? Base closings!
UPDATE II: The folks at Wampum are far more gracious than I. Also, they provide a helpful link to what Maine conservatives are saying about the deal.