All Intensive Purposes

A thought I had when I heard about the 14 Senators' filibuster deal was that even if the whole ordeal was a win in some nominal sense for the GOP, they had spent an awful lot of political capital on the issue without much return to show for it. A proper assessment needs to take into account the opportunity cost to Frist and the White House -- i.e., what else could they have spent their time on? Almost certainly, something with more to show. Mark Schmitt links to a conservative, "Trevino," who is thinking along the same lines:

What's bad? What's bad is easy enough to see: the party and the Administration have lost their way in the second term. The pressing issues of the day -- the war, the deficit, the dollar -- have all been ignored in favor of bizarre voluntary fights on Social Security, the filibuster, and the rearguard actions to defend Tom DeLay. It is a stupefying squandering of political capital that speaks ill of the party leadership from the White House to the RNC to the Office of Senator Frist to the offices of activists from Main Street to K Street.

He has lots more to say, too. Check it out.