A HUNDRED HOURS LATER THE COFFEE IN THE SAUCER SHOULD BE COOL ENOUGH:

Frist Offers Deal for Vote on Judges (William Branigin, April 28, 2005, Washington Post)

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist today offered extended debate on President Bush's top judicial nominees in return for Democratic agreement to stop using filibuster threats to block confirmation votes. But the chamber's Democratic leader immediately raised objections to the proposal, calling it a sop to the far right.

Frist, a Republican from Tennessee, said on the Senate floor that his offer was aimed at ensuring "an up-or-down vote" by the full Senate for Bush's judicial nominees "after fair, open and, some might say, exhaustive debate."

He said the Senate's majority party is prepared to allot up to 100 hours for debate on each nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court or to a federal appeals court, to be followed by a confirmation vote by the full Senate.

"Judicial nominees deserve up-or-down votes," Frist said. Calling his offer "a compromise that holds to constitutional principles," he said, "It's time for judicial obstruction to end, no matter which party controls the White House or the Senate."

Under his proposal, Frist said, the Judiciary Committee "will no longer be used to obstruct judicial nominees."

But he said he guaranteed that the ability of minority senators to block bills through filibusters "will be protected," and he vowed that filibuster rules "will remain unchanged."

That should allow for all the talk and debate that some filibuster supporters are pretending to defend here, right?

MORE:
They'd satisfy the Dean of the Washington press corps anyway, A Judicious Compromise (David S. Broder, April 24, 2005, Washington Post)

It is not too late to avoid a Senate-splitting rules fight over President Bush's embattled judicial nominees and achieve something positive for both the public and the cause of good government, if only Democrats and Republicans can free themselves for a moment from the death grip of the opposing outside interest groups.

Here is what should happen: The Democratic Senate leadership should agree voluntarily to set aside the continued threat of filibustering the seven Bush appointees to the federal appeals courts who were blocked in the last Congress and whose names have been resubmitted. In return, they should get a renewed promise from the president that he will not bypass the Senate by offering any more recess appointments to the bench and a pledge from Republican Senate leaders to consider each such nominee individually, carefully and with a guarantee of extensive debate in coming months

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 28, 2005 09:04 PM