Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Party split widens as showdown looms

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Rick Santorum says he "meant no offense" by referring to Adolf Hitler while defending the GOP's right to ban judicial filibusters as Senate leaders prepared to start a countdown today to a vote over whether to stop minority senators from blocking President Bush's judicial nominees.

"Referencing Hitler was meant to dramatize the principle of an argument, not to characterize my Democratic colleagues," Santorum, the No. 3 Republican in the GOP leadership in the Senate, said of his remarks Thursday.

Passions have been running high as senators argue over whether Republicans should allow the out-of-power Democrats to use Senate filibusters to effectively thwart President Bush from reshaping the nation's courts to his liking.

Republican John Warner and Democrat Robert Byrd are trying to avert that showdown, but Senate centrists have not been able to compromise on controversial nominees such as Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen.

Byrd came under fire in March for comparing Hitler's Nazis and the Senate GOP plan to block Democrats from filibustering. Santorum, a Pennsylvanian, criticized Byrd's remarks at the time, saying the Nazi references "lessen the credibility of the senator and the decorum of the Senate."

But on Thursday, Santorum said that Democratic protests over Republican efforts to ensure confirmation votes would be like the Nazi dictator seizing Paris and then saying: "I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me? How dare you bomb my city? It's mine."

Santorum later said in a release that his remark "was a mistake and I meant no offense."

The Republican Jewish Coalition applauded the statement. "Sen. Santorum is sensitive to the effect of his words and the inappropriateness of the analogy," Executive Director Matthew Brooks said.

If senators are forced to vote next week on Owen's nomination to the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, centrists say a historic confrontation is sure to follow over whether filibusters of appellate and Supreme Court nominees should be prohibited during the rest of the Bush presidency.

"Once you start into the procedural votes, the real procedural votes on the first judge, then it's going to be very difficult to put the genie back into the bottle," Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, said.

Republicans were expected to announce today that the Senate would hold a test vote on Owen on Tuesday, and if she doesn't garner 60 votes -- the threshold for overcoming a filibuster -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., then would move to have the Senate declare filibusters out of order for Supreme Court and federal appellate court nominees -- a change that has been labeled the "nuclear option."

The Republican-controlled Senate has been debating Owen's nomination since Wednesday. "We will continue that debate," Frist said. "Ten hours, 20 hours, 30 hours, as many hours as it takes for senators to air their views. But at some point, that debate should end and there should be a vote."

While it takes 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, Republicans intend to supersede the rule by a simple majority vote. With 55 seats, Republicans could afford five defections if all 100 members vote and still prevail on the strength of Vice President Dick Cheney's ability to break ties.

Democrats have threatened to slow the Senate's business to a crawl if Republicans prevail, and they served up a preview this week by invoking a rule that prevented some committees from meeting.

"The attempt to do away with the filibuster is nothing short of clearing the trees for the confirmation of an unacceptable nominee to the Supreme Court," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said. He accused the president of an attempt to "rewrite the Constitution and reinvent reality" with his demand for a yes-or-no vote on all nominees.

Tuesday's vote is not a guaranteed victory for Republicans.

Reid needs six Republicans to vote with the 44 Democrats, plus Independent Vermont Sen. James Jeffords, if Reid is to block the nuclear option and preserve the filibuster.

Reid today said he had commitments from four Republicans -- three who had sided with him publicly, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, plus one Reid would not name. Reid said he was lobbying four others, whom he also declined to name.

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