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Frist Won't Budge on Filibuster Demands

Posted on: Thursday, 28 April 2005, 15:00 CDT

WASHINGTON - With a showdown looming, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist refused to budge Thursday on his demand that Democrats forgo filibusters against all of President Bush's past or present nominees to federal appellate court benches or the Supreme Court.

"Throughout this debate, we have held firm to a simple principle, judicial nominees deserve up-or-down votes," Frist said.

But Frist offered to retain the right to filibuster district court nominees in exchange for 100 hours of debate and guaranteed confirmation votes on the nation's highest judgeships. The Senate's top Republican also said that under his plan, senators would no longer be able to block nominees in the Judiciary Committee.

"Judicial nominees are being denied. Justice is being denied. The solution is simple, allow senators to do their jobs and vote," Frist said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he would look at Frist's offer, but wasn't all that charitable in his description. "It's a big wet kiss to the far right," he said.

Reid said that Frist's offer would mean that Democrats would lose their ability to block Bush nominees, a condition he is not willing to accept. "After 100 hours the rights of the minority are extinguished," he responded in a corresponding Senate speech. "This has never been about the lengths of the debate. This is about checks and balances."

Frist suggested in a Thursday letter to Reid that the Judiciary Committee's jurisdiction over nominations be curtailed by setting time limits on its consideration of nominees, a proposal that Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., made last year before taking over the chairmanship.

Specter suggested that the committee be forced to hold a confirmation hearing within a month of a nomination. The Judiciary Committee would then be forced to hold a confirmation vote within two months of the hearing. The Senate would be forced to start debating the nomination within two months of committee confirmation, and a final confirmation vote would happen within 30 days.

"I believe (it) is a worthy model to discuss as it applies to Circuit Court and Supreme Court nominees," Frist said in the letter.

One of Democrats' biggest complaints has been that more than 60 of President Clinton's nominees were bottled up in committee, leaving positions available for Bush to fill.

"Whether on the floor or in committee, judicial obstruction is judicial obstruction," Frist said. "It's time for judicial obstruction to end no matter which party controls the White House or the Senate."

Democrats blocked 10 of Bush's appellate court choices through filibuster threats, which means those nominees would have to get 60 votes in the 100-member Senate before they could be confirmed to lifetime seats on the federal appellate courts that stand second only to the Supreme Court in the chain of judicial command. Democrats have threatened to block again the seven that Bush renominated this year, as well as future ones they consider outside the mainstream of legal thinking.

Republicans in turn have threatened to use their majority to change senatorial rules to require a simple majority vote for confirmation, in part because they fear a Democratic blockade could affect a Supreme Court vacancy if a high court seat opens in Bush's second term.

Reid earlier this week made Frist his own offer.

It included allowing confirmation votes for three nominees for the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - Richard Griffin, David McKeague and Susan Neilson - in exchange for Henry Saad's nomination to that court being withdrawn. Democrats also would not block confirmation of one of the four remaining filibustered nominees: Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, William Myers and William Pryor, although it is not clear which one would be chosen for confirmation.

Reid also called for giving senators more power over appointment of judges from their state as well as the creation of a task force, made up of former senators, to recommend improvements in the confirmation process.

Frist said previously that he would not accept any offer that lets Democrats filibuster past or future judicial nominees. And Reid said he would not accept any deal that keeps Democrats from blocking future nominees.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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