Discussions about the nuclear option have been part of the Republican dialog on the Hill for literally two years, meaning this week’s likely showdown over judicial nominees is the culmination of a fairly long period of strategizing, cajoling, and planning. No one, not even the senators themselves, know how a floor vote on this will play out.
But will there be a floor vote? The Nelson-Lott deal that seemed to be making headway early last week appears completely dead now, but Roll Call reported today that Bill Frist and Harry Reid are, at a minimum, talking. They just don’t seem to like what they’re hearing.
Despite more than a dozen meetings, conversations and phone calls in the past two weeks, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) remained at odds late last week over how to avert the final confrontation on filibusters.
Neither side will discuss how close the two leaders have ever come to a deal, but the intensity and volume of the meetings have increased in recent weeks as the showdown has drawn closer and closer.
The Reid-Frist talks reached a critical enough juncture that late Thursday afternoon, Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) joined the two leaders in a more than 50-minute meeting in Reid’s suite on the second floor of the Capitol. Aides to both Frist and Reid said McConnell joined the talks because, with Frist retiring after 2006 and McConnell the presumptive new GOP leader, the Kentucky Republican would need to be involved in any final compromise because he will have to deal with the long-term ramifications.
Exiting the meeting, Frist looked at two reporters and proceeded to zip his mouth shut with his right hand. He declined to say how the meeting went or when the next serious face-to-face meeting would occur.
That was Thursday. The negotiations couldn’t have been too terribly productive because every word since has been about the vote on the nuclear option itself, not about a possible compromise.
At this point, everyone wants a compromise but GOP leaders are simply unwilling to sacrifice anything, suggesting that perhaps these discussions were more for show than substance. If the “on the fence” Republican senators see Frist rejecting every attempt to find an amenable solution, they may be less inclined to back his scheme, which leads Frist to the negotiating table with Reid.
But what’s Frist saying? Based on every public comment he’s made, Frist won’t accept a solution unless it guarantees confirmation votes on every single Bush nominee, zero filibusters, and a clear path for possible Supreme Court justices. It’s hardly conducive to a compromise: “First give me everything I want and then we’ll talk.”
In a round-up of related nuclear-option news…
* About a month ago, Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) said he would “not take a stand against my party’s view that we should have up-or-down votes on judges.” Yesterday, on CNN, Lugar wasn’t nearly so certain, saying that the nuclear option amounts to “skating over very thin ice here with regard to the continuity of life in the Senate as we know it.” He added, “I’m opposed to trying to eliminate filibusters simply because I think they protect minority rights, whether they’re Republicans, Democrats or other people.”
* Former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker (R-Tenn.), Frist’s one-time mentor, warned against damaging the character of the Senate by executing the nuclear option. “The Senate is unique constitutionally,” Baker said in pointed remarks at a private Capitol reception in his honor attended by Frist late last week. “Whatever you do, protect that uniqueness.”
* People for the American Way launches a $1 million ad campaign targeting swing Republican senators in Pennsylvania, Alaska, and Maine this week.
* Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will lead an event with House and Senate Democratic women this week in opposition to Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen. The idea, as Roll Call noted, is to emulate the dramatic walkout that female Democrats staged in the fall of 1991 during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, calling attention to Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment.
Stay tuned.