Reid: Despite talks, there will be no compromise in filibuster fight

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 | 11:09 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Monday said there would be no compromise in the fight over the filibuster, setting the stage for a historic showdown to begin as early as Wednesday.

For weeks Reid and Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., have held countless talks aimed at diffusing a long-simmering dispute over judicial nominations and the "nuclear option."

Reid even dined this weekend on duck at a small gathering at Frist's home in Washington.

But the Nevada senator on Monday emerged from another meeting and said there would be no agreement on what has been called the "nuclear option" that could forever change the way White House nominees are approved.

"I've tried to compromise and they want all or nothing, and I can't do that," Reid told reporters.

"They are bound and determined to put these radical judges above all else," Reid said at a rally in a park near the Capitol earlier Monday.

Frist on Monday said, "We both agreed that after several months of discussions, we have been unable to come to a negotiated position where the president's nominees get an up-or-down vote."

Reid, in his first year as Democratic leader, said the issue was the most important he had ever worked on in his public life, which includes 23 years in Congress.

"If this happens, it will be a short-term win for my Republican colleagues on the other side of the aisle, but it will be a loss for the Senate and the American people," Reid said.

Other senators, including Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and John McCain, R-Ariz., who have been working back channels, held out hope today that some kind of arrangement could be worked out. But McCain said the looming showdown was emblematic of partisanship in Congress. Speaking on CBS' "The Early Show," McCain said there "should be a compromise out there that allows votes on most of the judges."

Among the compromises proposed: Democrats would not block votes on five controversial nominees, but continue to filibuster three, if Republicans abandoned the "nuclear option."

Also proposed: Republicans would pledge not to use the nuclear option through 2006. For their part, Democrats would not to block votes on President Bush's Supreme Court or appeals court nominees during the same period, except in extreme circumstances. "Extreme" was not immediately defined.

At issue is the ability of the Senate minority to use a filibuster to block a vote on a controversial White House nominee. Senate rules require 60 votes to halt a filibuster and call for a vote. There are 55 Republicans in the Senate.

To force a vote, Frist has said he could invoke the so-called nuclear option -- Republicans call it the "constitutional option" -- a maneuver in which Republicans would change the rule so that they need only 51 votes to halt a filibuster.

Reid has said Republicans are "breaking the rules to change the rules."

Not so, Republicans say.

"We're changing the rules so we can move forward," Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., said Monday.

Republicans say the use of the nuclear option would be a fair and constitutional response to Democrats blocking White House nominees who would have majority support. All nominees, even the most controversial, deserve an "up-or-down vote," Frist has said repeatedly.

Some congressional experts have said the use of the nuclear option could plunge the Senate to new lows of political fighting. Democrats say minority party rights could suffer irreparable damage.

"We are about to step into the abyss," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday.

Democrats also fear that Republicans could use the nuclear option to easily approve any White House nominee, including Supreme Court justices.

"The goal of the Republican leadership and their allies in the White House is to pave the way for a Supreme Court nominee who would only need 50 votes for confirmation rather than 60," Reid said.

In a written statement issued Monday, Frist referred to the filibuster as a "procedural gimmick." Reid said the filibuster is an important check on executive power.

"It's part of the fabric of this institution," Reid said.

Reid publicly called on six or seven Republican senators thought to be sympathetic to the Democrats to be "profiles in courage." But Reid acknowledged that one of the biggest disappointments of his political life had come in private conversations with a few of them in the last few days.

"They said, 'We know you're right. We know you're right. But we can't vote with you,' " Reid said.

He said the Senate should be working on more important issues to the public, such as providing 45 million Americans with health insurance, reducing gasoline prices and reducing the deficit.

"The Senate is literally fiddling while Rome is burning," Reid said.

Reid also said he was irked by reports that White House press secretary Scott McClellan had rejected talk of compromise in which some but not all of seven of Bush's most controversial judicial nominees would receive an up-or-down vote.

"The White House is telling the Senate how to operate?" an indignant Reid asked on the Senate floor. "What has this body come to?"