Living to fight another day

Weighing in late on this, but sometimes a day to think, while sitting on the deck looking at the light on the lake, gives a little perspective.

The Senate compromise that headed off bloodshed and likely permanent damage to the institution seems like a good outcome -- at least for now (always have to have that qualifier; it's an old editorial writer's trick).

I'm of the brigade on the left who usually wants to use the nuclear option in politics (although always in self-defense, never as a first strike; that would be wrong). My counterparts on the right are legion.

But there are times when it makes sense to live to fight another day, even when that means walking away from the joys of mutually assured destruction. That's what happened this week.

No one admits to being happy about it, of course. But the right wing seems a lot more crazed about it than the left. Something called RightMarch, for example, is foaming at the mouth about the seven GOP Senators who helped engineer the deal. See for yourself.Nothing like that so far on the Dem side of the aisle. Let's hope cooler heads prevail for once and Democrats resist the urge to commit fratricide.

Am I mellowing in my twilight years or what?