Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) is not interested in a Democratic proposal to allow select judges an up or down vote in exchange for pulling other judges out of consideration. Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin said yesterday that a compromise could probably be reached if the Republicans were willing to drop the most objectionable nominees. Bloomberg is reporting that Dem leader Harry Reid may allow some judges to go through in order to salvage the Dems’ right to filibuster a Bush nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Frist isn’t buying it:
“From day one, my goal has been to get up or down votes on judicial nominees,'’ Frist told reporters today in Washington. “If by compromise you mean I will shift from my principle, then no.'’
Frist is correct, at least in principle, in realizing that a “compromise” to stop denying people a chance at confirmation is not really a compromise at all. (It’s more like someone showing up to rob you and taking “only” 90% of the cash in your house.) He’s probably right to reject this type of hold up, but the practical problem is that it would be in the interest of everyone for the so-called ‘nuclear option’ to be averted. It seems that the only way for that to happen is for the Democrats to drop their obstructionist agenda, though that seems unlikely to happen any time soon.
The confrontation over judges escalated last week when the Senate Judiciary Committee sent to the full Senate two of Bush’s judicial nominees whose confirmations were blocked by Democrats in the president’s first term. Senate Democrats prevented votes on 10 nominees in the last four years.
In February, Bush resubmitted seven of the 10 names. Frist, of Tennessee, has said he may seek a rules change that would end filibusters of judges and permit judicial confirmations with the support of 51 votes. Republicans control the Senate 55-45.
Democrats say they have the right to try to block those nominations with a filibuster, a tactic that takes 60 votes to overcome. Democrats are threatening to bring Senate business to a crawl if Republicans prevail in changing the rules.
Nathan Novak at 12:18 pm
