Frist issues new warning on filibusters

WASHINGTON - In the afterglow of the bipartisan accord announced Monday night to avert a Senate showdown on changing the filibuster rule, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist emphasized Tuesday that he wasn’t a party to the deal and would quickly try to implement the rule change if Democrats resumed use of the filibuster to derail President Bush’s judicial nominees.

Frist’s proposal, which he calls “the constitutional option,” and which his foes call “the nuclear option” would lower the threshold for ending Senate debate on a judicial nominee from 60 to 51.

Monday night’s bipartisan deal prevented a vote on Frist’s proposal, as seven GOP senators promised to vote against it.

“The constitutional option will be used if… mindless, irresponsible filibusters become the tool of choice for the Democrats,” Frist told reporters.

A fragile deal
Thus Frist made it clear only 18 hours after the accord was announced just how brittle it was. It seemed that a decisive vote over filibusters of judicial nominees had only been deferred for a while.

The bipartisan accord announced Monday night by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. and signed by 14 senators, seven from each party, allows Senate Democrats to use the filibuster to thwart future Bush nominees, if any nomination creates what any of the seven Democrats defines as “extraordinary circumstances.”

One fact dominated all of Tuesday’s morning-after strategizing: Democrats have for the time being maintained their ability to win on judicial nominees.

Forty-one Democratic senators can still defeat 59 Democratic and Republican senators who would vote for ending a debate on a nominee.

One prominent Republican senator, George Allen of Virginia voiced his revulsion with the bipartisan accord Tuesday, calling it a “capitulation” which would be impossible to explain to “people out there in the real world.”

Alluding to the prospect of a Supreme Court vacancy, Allen said, “I can imagine the Democrats saying that this is an ‘extraordinary circumstance’… So we’re going to have to go through this battle then. I would have liked to have it settled now.”

Shifting focus to Bolton
With an incentive to change the topic and try to regain his tactical initiative, Frist moved to schedule a floor vote this week on the nomination of John Bolton, Bush’s choice to be ambassador to the United Nations.

Immediately after Wednesday's noon confirmation vote on the nomination of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen to the the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Frist will open debate on the Bolton nomination.

He hopes to reach an agreement with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to allocate time for debate so that the Senate can vote on the Bolton nomination by Friday.

Meanwhile, at least one Senate power broker was trying Tuesday to parlay any good feeling that lingered after the deal on judges to get legislation passed.

“There may be a certain sense of euphoria around the Senate; it’ll probably last as much as 24 or 48 hours,” said Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R- Pa. He will try to get his committee to approve the asbestos reform litigation bill by Friday.

Senate strategists were looking to a key date on the calendar: June 27, the last day of the Supreme Court’s term and often the day on which retiring justices have announced their retirements.

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