Washington – Presidential power clashed anew Thursday with the traditions of the Senate as senators completed a second day of partisan debate over President Bush’s attempts to put his conservative stamp on the federal judiciary and limit the minority party’s ability to thwart him.
A bipartisan group of senators continued trying to negotiate a compromise, and though they seemed to gain numbers, knotty problems still frustrated a deal.
Hanging over the Senate floor debate and the compromise negotiations was the likelihood of impending vacancies on the Supreme Court, the first in 10 years, and Bush’s ability to fill them without having to compromise with the Democrats.
Democrats have ussed the filibuster to prevent 10 of Bush’s 45 appellate-court nominees from getting confirmation floor votes. The parliamentary maneuver allows unlimited debate unless 60 of the 100 senators vote to end it.
By blocking 22 percent of Bush’s nominees, the Democrats have made it clear that if a Supreme Court vacancy occurs, any nominee who is deemed too conservative is likely to face the same fate.
Senate Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee plans a showdown next week that would end filibusters against any judicial nominees. Senators call the move the “nuclear option” because Democrats threaten to blow up the usual routines of Senate business in retaliation if Frist prevails.
The issue before the Senate is the nomination of Priscilla Owen, a Texas Supreme Court justice who was nominated to a circuit court of appeals seat four years ago but was filibustered by Democrats.
Of the 10 nominees Democrats blocked, Bush has renominated seven.
Frist decided to focus the showdown on Owen and another female nominee, Janice Rogers Brown, the first African-American woman on the California Supreme Court.
The influential Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., joined an expanding group of centrist Democrats and Republicans negotiating over a compromise Thursday in the office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Byrd later spent a few minutes privately with Sen. John Warner, R-Va.
If six Republicans and six Democrats cut a deal, they could deny their party leaders the support they need under Senate rules to either mount a filibuster or outlaw the tactic.
However, a compromise appeared less likely the longer the negotiations continued.
