Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Reid seeks to capitalize on filibuster deal's momentum

Harry Reid Senate minority leader says "the nuclear option is gone in our lifetime"

WASHINGTON -- He tried not to gloat, but Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid still acted like a big winner Tuesday after a compromise scuttled the "nuclear option" to end filibusters against President Bush's judicial nominees.

Reid declared the long-battled filibuster fight finished and began making plans to capitalize on momentum from Monday night's surprise agreement among 14 moderate senators.

Turning from judges, Reid plans to deliver a speech Thursday on a Democratic agenda to make further reforms in Congress.

Reid also left open the possibility that Democrats might filibuster the controversial nomination of John Bolton to be the new ambassador to the United Nations.

Analysts said Reid appeared to emerge from the fight over judicial filibusters with his influence as strong as ever.

The compromise allows the passage of at least three of the president's most controversial judicial picks. But it also bows to the Democrats' bottom line in that it set aside a proposed rules change that would have prevented the Senate minority from blocking nominated judges through filibuster.

"I've been hearing talk about (Senate Majority Leader Bill) Frist's weakened leadership because his own members spurned him to put together this deal," said Norm Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C.

"But I haven't heard anyone saying the same thing about Reid," Ornstein said.

Reid jousted with Frist on Tuesday on the Senate floor. The majority leader said the compromise "does stop far short of guaranteeing judicial nominees the fair up-or-down votes they deserve," which was his goal in the debate.

Frist said he would not hesitate to revive the effort to end judicial filibusters if Democrats "act in bad faith" on future nominees.

Reid dismissed such talk.

"The nuclear option is gone for our lifetime," Reid said. "I'm disappointed there are still these threats. Let's move on and do the Senate's business.

"There will be filibusters of judges and of other things," Reid said. "That is what the Senate is all about."

While liberal Democrats like Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., heaped praise on Reid, Republican criticism of the Nevadan appeared to soar to new heights.

Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said the compromise resulted because Reid did not want to reach an agreement with Frist.

"Senator Reid was, without question, carrying an extreme agenda of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), and the People for the American Way, and these very left-wing organizations that were behind this movement in the first place," Santorum said.

Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Reid and Senate Democrats "are going to have to stop objecting to everything and slow-rolling everything."

"If they think (the filibuster) is a hallowed instrument, they shouldn't abuse it," Lott said. "If they do, they're going to lose part of it."

Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said Reid's reaction to the compromise was more politically adroit than Frist's.

"Reid has planted his party's flag in the political center on the filibuster issue, and Democrats needed that," Herzik said. "Frist, who has his eyes on the presidency, has planted the Republican flag in the conservative wing of his party, and talks like he still wants a fight."

Ornstein said Reid appeared to want a compromise more than Frist.

Reid said he did not think the agreement announced Monday would undermine his leadership.

Although he repeatedly downplayed chances for a deal, saying as late as Monday afternoon that prospects were "very, very remote," Reid said Tuesday he received hourly updates on negotiations.

"In fact, some of (the 14 senators) dropped out of the negotiations, and I put them back in," Reid said.

Reid said he is convinced Frist wanted to work something out with him but "the James Dobsons of the world prevented him from doing so."

Dobson, the conservative founder of Focus on the Family, opposed negotiations for a compromise on judicial filibusters.