Reid continues to seek compromise as battle over judges heats up

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 | 11:10 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., this week faces his biggest showdown yet as Democratic leader as he and Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., delicately negotiate an intensifying round of brinksmanship over judicial nominees.

The long-simmering standoff, over a "nuclear option" that would change a procedure in which judges are approved, could have long-lasting effects on how the Senate approves nominees.

At stake could be the Senate's ability to work through this year's legislative business and its ability to preserve what little comity is left between the parties. After months of press conferences and rhetoric on both sides, the issue could come to a head as early as this week over several judges that President Bush nominated to the Senate four years ago. Members of Reid's staff say they don't expect action until next week.

"This thing has ratcheted up to a real boiling point," said Jennifer Duffy, Senate analyst for the Washington-based Cook Political Report. "It's time for everyone to take three steps back and a deep breath and to recommit to finding a solution."

Reid on Monday made another attempt at forging a compromise, offering Democratic support for controversial Bush appeals court nominee Thomas Griffith, who served as a Senate lawyer during the Clinton impeachment trial and as general counsel for Brigham Young University.

The olive branch was extended in part to entice moderate Republicans to break ranks with Frist's hard-line stance that each nominee receive an up-or-down vote. President Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Monday called for support of that stance.

Reid, however, continued to call for compromise.

"Let's take a step back from the precipice," Reid said Monday. "Let's try cooperation, rather than confrontation, which seems to be the hallmark of what we've been doing here lately."

Frist essentially rejected Reid's offer Monday. The two Senate leaders had resumed talks this week after a lull in their negotiations last week during a Senate recess when Frist was in the Middle East, aides said.

At issue are 10 judges nominated by President Bush that Senate Democrats rejected in the last Congress. Frist wants an up or down vote on each, seven of whom have been re-nominated by Bush.

But Democrats seek to preserve their right to filibuster and ultimately block a vote on a few nominees they deem unacceptable. In public appearances, Reid routinely notes that the Senate has approved 204 of Bush's judicial nominees and has rejected only 10.

Senate rules require that 60 senators must agree to interrupt a filibuster and call for a vote on a judicial nominee. Senate Republicans, numbering 55, have said they are close to invoking a procedural maneuver dubbed the "nuclear option" that would essentially bar filibusters and allow them to hold a simple-majority vote on a nominee.

Reid has said Democrats would slow the business of the Senate if Frist employs that option.

Reid, Frist, their parties and the public would be far better served if they could somehow find a compromise, many observers say. But both sides have staked their territory.

Reid says Democrats will not give up their right to filibuster, and Frist has signaled that he won't settle for anything less than an up-or-down vote on every nominee.

"There is not a lot of room to negotiate," UNLV political science professor Ted Jelen said. "The ball is in the Republicans' court."

Reid and Frist have made previous attempts at compromise.

Reid last month proposed allowing votes on three controversial nominees to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- Richard Griffin, David McKeague and Susan Neilson -- in exchange for nominee Henry Saad's nomination to the court being withdrawn, along with the Republican threat of using the nuclear option.

The Republicans rejected that. Frist countered with a proposal to allow for 100 hours of debate on nominees, ending with an up-or-down vote. Reid said debate length was not at issue and called Frist's proposal a "big wet kiss to the far right."

"The ultimate compromise would be one in which both sides lose a little but nobody looks bad," Duffy said. "But there are very few solutions out there that allow both parties to save face."

Still, Reid has sought to articulate a commitment to -- and perhaps his anguish over -- finding a compromise. Reid wants a solution "in the worst way," he said during a Senate floor speech.

So does Frist, but he is not backing down, Republicans say.

"Confirm them or deny them but give them all a vote," Frist said.

Experts say that if the nuclear option is detonated it could dramatically slow the business of Congress this year, and affect the way the Senate approves judges -- including Supreme Court nominees -- for years to come.

"There are still some options out there," said University of Richmond professor Carl Tobias, a former UNLV Boyd School of Law professor who has closely monitored the judicial debate. "But both sides have to want to find them."

If it comes to a nuclear option, and a subsequent Senate slowdown, Reid and the Democrats likely would stand to lose politically, Duffy said. Most Americans aren't paying much attention to the Senate saber-rattling, but they would if congressional business slowed, she said.

"At that point, Republicans could start to portray Democrats as poor sports," Duffy said.

But long-time Reid ally and former Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said Democrats wouldn't necessarily suffer. Democrats have made a stronger case and bolstered public support for filibusters as a vital tool of the minority, Bryan said.

Reid has called the right shots in the standoff, protecting the minority, working toward a compromise and appealing to a handful of moderate Republicans who might side with him, Bryan said.

"Sen. Reid has done a good job positioning the Democratic caucus," Bryan said. "This would be a fundamental change in the Senate."