Sen. Ken Salazar, part of a bipartisan group working to stave off a showdown in the U.S. Senate over judicial nominees, said Friday that the chances of avoiding the so-called “nuclear option” are about 50-50.
“We’re going to continue to work through the weekend to see if there may be some kind of compromise,” Salazar, D-Colo., said during a news conference in Denver.
Salazar, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Republican Sens. John Warner of Virginia and John McCain of Arizona are among those working on a plan to clear the way for votes on some of the seven nominees while preserving the right to filibuster others.
President Bush renominated the seven after Democrats blocked their approval in his first term.
Salazar said that with the right wording, he sees at least a 50 percent chance of reaching an agreement by Monday night.
The majority Republicans have scheduled a test vote for Tuesday on Bush’s nomination of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen to a federal appeals court.
While Owen may be able to pass on a majority vote, the GOP likely couldn’t muster the 60 votes needed to end debate, or a filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is threatening to change the rules to ban filibusters on judicial nominees, called the “nuclear option” because of its potential political fallout.
Democrats and some Republicans say the filibuster is a necessary part of the Senate’s checks and balances.
This fight is considered a warm-up to the one expected when a vacancy occurs on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Salazar said his earlier proposal to vote on all the nominees in exchange for preserving the right to filibuster is not an option.
The first-term senator said the battle could have been avoided if Bush had followed the Constitution and sought the Senate’s advice and consent on judicial nominations.
