Editorial: Fragile peace in the Senate

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 | 9:23 a.m.

It was a positive development late Monday when a bipartisan group of 14 senators agreed on a compromise that averts the so-called "nuclear option" threatened by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Tension in the Senate has lessened considerably and business, for the next few weeks anyway, may be able to proceed with only the usual partisan acrimony. If the Republicans had indeed invoked the nuclear option -- a voiding of the Senate rule allowing filibustering of presidential judicial nominees -- the Democrats had promised to retaliate by using other procedures to bring Senate business to a virtual halt. It would have been a crisis, one that might have endured for months.

The compromise expressly allows up-or-down floor votes on three nominees to federal appeals courts that Democrats have blocked -- Priscilla R. Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William H. Pryor Jr. For this, the seven Republicans in the negotiating group agreed not to support a change to the filibuster rule, meaning that Frist would not get the necessary majority vote if he went ahead with his nuclear option. The seven Democrats in the negotiating group, in exchange, agreed to support use of the filibuster on future judicial nominees only under "extraordinary circumstances."

The Democrats have approved more than 200 of the president's judicial nominees, including 35 for appeals courts. But they used the filibuster rule to block 10 of the appeals courts nominees, enraging the White House and Frist. Three of the blocked nominees withdrew and Bush renominated the remaining seven. Of those, the Democrats had signaled they would approve two, leaving five in play. With Monday's compromise, only two now are in play -- William G. Myers III and Henry W. Saad.

While the compromise has cooled tensions for now, they could ignite again over Myers and Saad. The White House, along with Frist and his far-right loyalists in the Senate, are fuming about the compromise reached by more moderate senators. They won't rule out the nuclear option until 100 percent of President Bush's nominees get floor votes. "We will continue to push for an up-or-down vote on all our nominees," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told the New York Times.

Meanwhile, there are sure to be fights over what "extraordinary circumstances" means. If Bush gets a chance to nominate a candidate for the Supreme Court, and the nominee reflects the president's own extreme and unbending views, will that meet the definition of an extraordinary circumstance? If the filibuster is used then, will the nuclear option be back on?

We support the Democratic senators and Nevada's own Sen. Harry Reid, who is the minority leader, in this fight to retain the Senate rule that protects against the majority party from becoming all powerful. Reid is pleased with the compromise, as well he should be. In a statement, Reid said, "This is a significant victory ... Checks and balances in our government have been preserved."

But for how long? That's the natural question, considering that Bush, Frist and other Republican extremists are still aching for total subordination to their demands.