4.29.2005
Frist Offers Compromise on Judicial Posts (NYTimes.com)
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: April 29, 2005
WASHINGTON, April 28 - Trying to head off a showdown in the Senate over judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, the majority leader, proposed a compromise that would allow the minority party to block lower-court appointees if Democrats agreed to give up the power to block nominees for appeals courts and the Supreme Court.
Senator Harry Reid, of Nevada, the minority leader, promptly rejected its terms as "a big wet kiss to the far right."
That impasse makes it all but inevitable that after a recess next week the Senate will soon plunge into a battle over confirmation procedures that could derail much of its business in the months ahead. Because the results of that fight could determine the future shape of the Supreme Court, the standoff has aroused the passions of both liberal and social conservative groups that view it as the culmination of decades of battles about abortion, civil rights and the separation of church and state.
In the last two years, the Senate's Democratic minority has used a filibuster, standing against the 60 votes needed to close debate, to block 10 of President Bush's 45 appellate-court nominees. Mr. Bush reintroduced seven of the blocked nominations this session.
(More ... The New York Times > Washington > Frist Offers Compromise on Judicial Posts_ ¶ 21:51
Published: April 29, 2005
WASHINGTON, April 28 - Trying to head off a showdown in the Senate over judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, the majority leader, proposed a compromise that would allow the minority party to block lower-court appointees if Democrats agreed to give up the power to block nominees for appeals courts and the Supreme Court.
Senator Harry Reid, of Nevada, the minority leader, promptly rejected its terms as "a big wet kiss to the far right."
That impasse makes it all but inevitable that after a recess next week the Senate will soon plunge into a battle over confirmation procedures that could derail much of its business in the months ahead. Because the results of that fight could determine the future shape of the Supreme Court, the standoff has aroused the passions of both liberal and social conservative groups that view it as the culmination of decades of battles about abortion, civil rights and the separation of church and state.
In the last two years, the Senate's Democratic minority has used a filibuster, standing against the 60 votes needed to close debate, to block 10 of President Bush's 45 appellate-court nominees. Mr. Bush reintroduced seven of the blocked nominations this session.
(More ... The New York Times > Washington > Frist Offers Compromise on Judicial Posts_ ¶ 21:51
