ENTER STAGE RIGHT:

U.S. Senate Panel Backs Pryor; Filibuster Test Is Due (Bloomberg, 5/12/05)

The U.S. Senate edged closer to a confrontation over Democrats' insistence on the power to block judicial nominees as the last of President George W. Bush's most hotly disputed choices was approved by a Senate committee.

The Judiciary Committee sent to the full Senate the nomination of William H. Pryor Jr. Senate Republican leader Bill Frist says he will seek votes on the nominees as early as next week. Three other nominees the Democrats have threatened to block are also awaiting Senate votes.

Frist has threatened to try to bar Democrats from using the filibuster, a parliamentary tactic that allows unlimited debate, to block the appointments. Democrats, in turn, have said they may slow Senate business to a crawl if the judicial filibuster is eliminated. It takes 60 votes to end a filibuster in the Senate, where Republicans have 55-45 control.

"We stand here on the precipice of a constitutional crisis,'' said New York Democrat Charles Schumer. Pryor's approval by the committee ``is nothing more than a stage-setter for an attempt to undo what the Senate has been all about for over 200 years.''

Partisan minority obstruction of executive appointments?

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 12, 2005 7:44 PM