The White House insists it’s going to keep bringing back the president’s most offensive judicial nominees, Senate Dems insist they’re going to keep blocking them from confirmation, and Senate Republicans insist they’re going to invite full-blown partisan warfare by enacting the “nuclear option,” which would prohibit filibusters on judicial nominees.
In response, Harry Reid has a firm response to Republican threats: We’re not backing down.
Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) warned the White House of another confrontation over judicial nominations yesterday, vowing that Democrats “are not going to cut and run” from a new fight over the 10 nominees blocked during President Bush’s first term and resubmitted by the president.
Reid used some of his strongest rhetoric to date to challenge the White House on an issue that produced bitter divisions during Bush’s first term. “If they bring back the same judges, we’re going to do the same thing,” Reid told reporters, accusing the president and Republicans of manufacturing a phony issue by charging the Democrats with being obstructionists. He said the Senate approved 204 of Bush’s judicial nominees during his first term while blocking 10.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has threatened to invoke a rules change in the Senate that would prohibit a filibuster of judicial nominees, a move that has been called the “nuclear option” because of its potential to shatter any remaining bipartisan comity in the Senate. Reid all but dared Frist to try.
“They can threaten the nuclear option,” he said. “If they feel that’s great for the institution and the country, let them do it.” Noting that the only complaint he has heard from fellow Democrats is that not enough of Bush’s judicial nominees were blocked in the past four years, Reid said he is prepared “to go behind the pool hall and see who wins this one.”
“Go behind the pool hall“? I love this guy! Did I mention that Reid was once an amateur boxer?
Reid’s quickly solidifying his status as my favorite Senate Dem leader since LBJ.