Frist issues new warning on filibusters

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Collins works on alternative; blasts D bill

Will deal influence Bush choice?
Would the fact that the Democrats retain their power to filibuster persuade Bush to nominate a more “moderate” choice, if there is a Supreme Court vacancy?

Specter seemed to hint at that outcome as he told reporters that the separation of powers between the president and Congress “functions best when people are a little uncertain as to how it is going to work out.”

In other words, if Bush knew his nominee needed 60, not merely 51, then he might choose a less conservative nominee.

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The Senate and Bush “are now back to pre-1987 (before the defeat of conservative Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork). Everything is a little on tippy-toes as to how to proceed and that is the best way for our separation of powers,” Specter said.

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The GOP leadership expects at least two of the Republican senators who signed Monday night’s “Memorandum of Understanding on Judicial Nominations” — Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio — to back Frist by voting for the rule change, if Democrats revert to filibustering.

“This will rest squarely on their shoulders,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Sen. John Cornyn, R- Texas, referring to DeWine, Graham and the other GOP senators who signed the Memorandum of Understanding. “They made this deal and it is incumbent on them to enforce it.”

Dispute over two other nominees
One unwritten part of the accord, according to two Capitol Hill sources, was that Bush appeals court nominees William Haynes and Brett Kavanagh, will not get votes on the Senate floor.

But Graham vehemently denied that on Tuesday. “That’s all just garbage. I don’t know where that came from,” Graham said.

Sen. Mark Pryor, D- Ark, one of the Democratic signatories to the deal, was equivocal, saying “We talked about all kinds of different scenarios and nominees and names and what-ifs, and we did talk about those (Kavanagh and Haynes), but let’s let the agreement speak for itself.”

Almost as a footnote to Tuesday's maneuvering, at noon the Senate voted 81 to 18 to end debate on Owen's nomination. Bush first nominated her to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit four years ago.

On the vote to end debate, Democrats such as Sen. Charles Schumer of New York who had portrayed Owen as “way out of the mainstream” voted to close off debate, setting the stage for her confirmation vote.

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