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, R-Tenn.
"The leader's door remains open to Senator Reid," Frist's spokeswoman, Amy Call, said in reply.
Reid just found out that he's toast. :-)
Frist plans to begin a debate on a judicial nomination after the Senate acts on the highway bill, either today or Wednesday. If that nomination is delayed, under the latest scenario outlined by GOP aides, Frist eventually will raise a point of order that the Senate should debate the nomination of an appeals-court nomination for a certain number of hours. Vice President Dick Cheney, who would be in the chair, would rule in favor. Democrats would appeal, and the Senate would vote on tabling that appeal.
Even as leaders approached the brink, senators have pushed a number of last-minute efforts to find a way to stop the filibuster short of that action. “I think it’s all still being discussed,” said McConnell.
As described by one Senate GOP aide Friday, one option includes changing the Senate’s standing orders, which have virtually the same effect of rules. Another possibility would be to work out an agreement by unanimous consent, or even to pass a law. Leaders could also simply reach a “formal understanding.”
Or the Senate simply could invoke cloture to cut off debate on nominations. But by far the most likely option remains the so-called “nuclear option,” which could throw the Senate into an uproar, Democrats have warned at times.
Another GOP aide said that if Democrats were to offer to allow votes on all seven stalled nominations, Republicans would give up their plans to effect a constitutional option. But Democrats do not appear willing to go that far.