Reid, Frist square off as Senate debate gets under way

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, May 18, 2005 | 10:59 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., stood nose-to-nose with Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., today in what has been described as a historic fight over the future of the Senate.

With hopes of a compromise on the long-simmering feud over the "nuclear option" all but gone, the Senate leaders opened debate on the nomination of controversial federal appeals court nominee Priscilla Owen.

That action set up a broader debate over the use of the filibuster by the minority party to block a White House nomination. The debate on Owen, who is a Texas Supreme Court judge, the filibuster and Senate rules is expected to carry into next week, with a possible final resolution Tuesday.

"The filibuster is a critical tool in keeping the majority in check," said Reid, who in his fifth month as Democratic leader finds himself in the middle of an epic battle that could change the role of Congress.

Democrats have used the filibuster, a delaying tactic, to block 10 of President Bush's judicial nominees, and now Republicans appear poised to invoke what has been called the "nuclear option" for the anticipated effect it could have on partisanship and Senate business.

The procedural maneuver would allow Republicans to block a filibuster with a simple 51-vote majority, instead of the 60 now required to halt a filibuster. There are 55 Republican senators.

Democrats said the rule change would change the Senate forever by making it a mere "rubber stamp" for the White House.

Republicans say the nuclear option -- they often call it the "Constitutional option" -- appears to be the only way to halt what they call historic, unreasonable filibusters used in the last Congress by Democrats, in order to pave the way for up-or-down votes on White House nominees.

"We don't want the Constitutional option, we didn't ask for the Constitutional option," Frist said.

Democrats have allowed votes on 208 Bush judicial nominees and blocked 10 they said had records that were outside the mainstream, but Republicans say all deserve a vote.

Frist today said Bush's nominees were "among the best legal minds in America." But he said the debate begun today was also a matter of principle.

"Let's do our duty and vote," Frist said. "Judicial nominees deserve an up-or-down vote."

Republicans need 50 votes to invoke the nuclear option -- they are counting on Vice President Cheney to break any tie -- and it wasn't necessarily assured today that Frist had that many. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., have said they will vote against the rule change. The vote could come down to five Republicans who have voiced concern about the nuclear option but not said how they will vote.

One of those five, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., today said Democrats seem to be motivated by "payback time" for Republicans bottling up 70 of President Clinton's nominees in the Judiciary Committee, effectively denying them a Senate vote. Specter praised the nomination of Owen.

So did other Republicans, who refuted the Democratic position that Owen was a conservative "activist" judge. Owen is "nowhere near" an activist, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said Owen had been "vilified" and her positions mischaracterized. Hutchison praised Owen as a "soft-spoken," "scholarly" and "lovely person."

Reid reiterated Democratic objections to Owen, which have focused on her opinions on worker rights, abortion and environment cases.

Reid said the Bush administration was making an unfair power grab by seeking to invoke the nuclear option in the Owen nomination.

"This administration is unwilling to play by the rules," Reid said. "They want to do away with Mr. Smith," a reference to the Jimmy Stewart movie, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

In a conference call with the Democratic National Committee this morning, Reid said he had done everything he could to avoid a confrontation over the nuclear option.

"This White House and the Republican leadership in Congress are arrogant," Reid said on the call. "The Republicans are drunk with power."

In a speech on the Senate floor this morning decrying the nuclear option, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., equated the Republican plan to "a playground game of king of the hill."

"The idea that might makes right is wrong," said Leahy, the ranking minority member of the Judiciary Committee.

He rhetorically asked if this situation was the "judicial crisis that will allow us to destroy the United States Senate?"

On the eve of the showdown Tuesday, Republicans and Democrats sought to clarify their stances as simple matters of principle.

"I've made it clear what the principle is: a fair up-or-down vote," Frist said.

Democratic senators sought to frame the issue as broader than a vote on a few controversial judges. They said it was about the minority party's right to filibuster those White House nominees that they deemed unacceptable. Democrats fear Republicans are clearing the way for simple-majority votes on other White House nominees, including Supreme Court nominees, and even on controversial legislation.

"They (Republicans) are saying, 'Give the president his way all the time,' " Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. "The Senate should not be a rubber stamp."

Reid has said that if the nuclear option is invoked that he would use other Senate rules to slow the business of the Senate and block Republican initiatives.

That would hurt Democrats politically, some Republican senators said. Conservative voters who helped secure Republican victories in the last election have said appointing conservative judges is among their top priorities, Sen. George Allen, R-Va., said.

"For months, I have been saying that we should go for it (nuclear option)," Allen told reporters on Monday. "This is a very big issue to the people who elected us. I don't think that the Democratic threat should have us cowering."