www.cnn.comReid: Filibuster compromise try endsAnother proposal floated as fight on judicial nominees looms
Monday, May 16, 2005 Posted: 8:05 PM EDT (0005 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic leader Harry Reid declared an end Monday to compromise talks with Republican leaders over President Bush's controversial judicial nominees, saying their fate along with the future of long-standing filibuster rules will be settled in a showdown on the Senate floor.
"I've tried to compromise and they want all or nothing, and I can't do that," Reid told reporters after a private meeting with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican.
"The leader's door remains open to Senator Reid," Frist's spokeswoman, Amy Call, said in reply.
With Democrats threatening to block confirmation votes on several of Bush's appeals court nominees, Frist has threatened to change Senate procedures to strip them of their ability to do so. At issue is the filibuster, a parliamentary device that can be defeated only by a majority of 60 votes or higher.
Reid made his comments at the same time a small group of Democrats, who have been meeting with Republicans also eager to avoid a showdown, floated a proposal under which they would clear the way for confirmation of five nominees while scuttling three others.
Under the proposal, circulated in writing, Republicans would have to pledge no change through 2006 in the Senate's rules that allow filibusters against judicial nominees. For their part, Democrats would commit not to block votes on Bush's Supreme Court or appeals court nominees during the same period, except in extreme circumstances.
Officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Democrats involved in the compromise would vote to end any filibuster blocking a final vote on Richard Griffin, David McKeague and Susan Neilson -- all named to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Democrats would also clear the way for final votes on William H. Pryor Jr. for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and Janice Rogers Brown for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Both are among the nominees most strongly opposed by organized labor as well as civil rights and abortion rights groups and others that provide political support for the Democratic Party.
Three other nominations would continue to be blocked under the offer: those of Henry Saad to the 6th Circuit Court, Priscilla Owen to the 5th Circuit and William G. Myers III to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Individual Democrats would be free to decide for themselves what constituted an extreme case for future nominees, according to officials familiar with the proposal. At the same time, Republicans would be bound to leave filibuster practices in effect.
Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat seeking re-election in a Republican state, outlined the suggested compromise for Frist on Sunday night at a dinner at the Tennessee Republican's home. Nelson also has spoken with Reid.
Reid criticized Frist during the day on the judgeship issue, saying that earlier efforts toward compromise had produced little progress.
"I think he's trying to satisfy the radical right," he said at a news conference before the two men met privately.
Call, Frist's spokeswoman, said the majority leader "is going to satisfy the principle of the up-or-down vote, and it's unfortunate that Senator Reid continues with bitter partisan rhetoric as opposed to coming to the table to work this out."
Nelson's spokesman, David DiMartino, declined to confirm the details of the compromise offer. DiMartino declined to say which other Democrats were willing to pledge to support the proposal, but a spokesman for Sen. Mark Pryor, Rodell Mollineaux, said the Arkansas lawmaker was "the No. 2 Democrat on this" effort to compromise.
Democrats successfully blocked 10 of Bush's first-term appeals court nominees, using a filibuster, a parliamentary tactic that erects a 60-vote threshold. Bush has renominated seven of the 10, and Democrats have threatened to block them again.
In response, Frist has threatened to seek a parliamentary ruling to ban filibusters in the cases of appeals court and Supreme Court judges, a test vote that would be settled by simple majority. He has announced plans to begin forcing the issue at midweek by initiating a debate over Owen and Brown.
Republicans hold 55 seats in the Senate, meaning they can afford five defections and still triumph. Already, though, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island have said they will break ranks. Vote counters on both sides have sad they expect Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine to do likewise.
Several other Republicans are publicly uncommitted, and neither side appears certain it has enough votes to prevail if the issue is put to a vote. At the same time, if six Republicans and six Democrats agree to a compromise of their own, they could impose it on the leadership if necessary, averting a showdown.
Even Republicans who strongly opposed the Democrats' repeated use of filibusters argue that banning such moves would amount to a sweeping change in the way the Senate conducts business. The Senate's uniqueness, they say, stems in part from the rights it preserves for the minority.
As a result, many have expressed hope that a confrontation could be avoided.
"I believe that we are skating over very thin ice here with regard to the continuity of life in the Senate as we've known it," Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, said over the weekend on CNN. "I'm opposed to trying to eliminate filibusters simply because I think they protect minority rights, whether they're Republicans, Democrats or other people."