Spectre moving to bring nominees for an up or down vote on Senate floor if both leaders release from party loyalties.
What? Release the senators from party loyalties? Yeah, the RATS will respect that, uh-huh.....
Frist Nixes Reid's Filibuster CompromiseJESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago
WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Wednesday rejected last-second offers from Democrats to avoid a showdown over whether they can use parliamentary delaying tactics to sabotage lifetime judgeships for people they vehemently oppose.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid tried to get Frist to skip over the nomination of Texas Judge Pricilla Owen, one of the most hotly contested of the Bush administration's judgeship appointments, and instead confirm consensus nominees to two other courts.
Reid, D-Nev., also suggested that Frist call a senators-only meeting in the Capitol's Old Senate Chamber — no aides, just all 100 senators — where they could hash out the controversy on their own, just as they did to work out how senators would handle President Clinton's impeachment.
"Have all of us retire to the chamber, sit down and talk through this issue to see if there's a way we can resolve this short of this nuclear option," Reid said. His reference to "nuclear option" was to the terminology Democrats have given to Republican threats to curtail their ability to filibuster judicial nominees.
But Frist, R-Tenn., said he was ready to move forward.
"I'm trying to move to a qualified nominee, Priscilla Owen and we hear these attempts to delay even right now, to sidetrack, to even consider somebody else and that's the challenge," he said. "That's why we're on the floor of the United States Senate, with the light of day, with the American people watching."
With the Owen nomination now pending, time is running out on senators who want to find a compromise and avoid a vote in the Senate to block Democrats from filibustering the White House's judicial nominees. If majority Republicans opt to change the rules to disallow filibusters of judicial nominees — the move labeled a "nuclear option" — parliamentary warfare between Democrats and Republicans could escalate and stall Bush's legislative agenda.
Senators expect to debate Owen's nomination all this week and take a test vote early next week. If that vote is not successful, then Frist plans to call a vote on banning judicial filibusters, aides said.
Frist insists that all judicial nominees deserve confirmation votes. "I've made it clear what the principle is, a fair up-or-down vote," he said.
After meeting with Owen and California judge Janice Rogers Brown, who were blocked by Democrats during Bush's first term, Republicans announced that Owen's nomination for an appeals court seat would be the vehicle for the attempt to prohibit Democrats from filibustering judicial nominations.
The two women, who are among Bush's most-wanted judicial nominees, met with the president at the White House on Tuesday and later with Senate GOP leaders at the Capitol.
Owen is praised as an ideal candidate by conservatives but criticized by liberals as being biased toward business interests and anti-abortion.
Reid refuses to give up Democrats' ability to block Supreme Court and lower court nominees they consider too extreme. Court watchers think a Supreme Court vacancy could happen sometime this year.
"The goal of the Republican leadership and their allies in the White House is to pave the way for a Supreme Court nominee who would only need 50 votes for confirmation rather than 60," the number of senators needed to maintain a filibuster, Reid said
Democrats have prevented final votes on 10 of Bush's first-term appeals court nominees, and have threatened to do the same this year to seven the president renominated, including Owen and California judge Janice Rogers Brown. Frist has threatened to try to keep Democrats from blocking judges by use of the filibuster, a parliamentary device that can be overcome only by a majority of 60 votes or higher.
Just 51 votes are needed to approve a nominee once a vote is called in the 100-member Senate, and only 50 if the vice president, who breaks ties, votes in favor of a nominee. Frist could prevail with 50 votes supporting his move to rule filibusters out of order when used to block a confirmation vote because Vice President Dick Cheney has said he will break a tie in favor of ending judicial filibusters.
Neither side appears certain it has enough votes to prevail if the issue is put to a test.
Arlen Spectre wants to be a hero. Fergittaboutit Arlen, Neither side trusts you!
Leahy has captured the soundbite du jour
"Religious McCarthyism...Religious McCarthyism".
MSM gonna love it!