Both parties seek support of blacks in filibuster fight

WASHINGTON -- Republicans and Democrats injected racial politics into the struggle over President Bush's judicial nominees and the Senate's filibuster rules on Thursday, underscoring partisan differences while compromise-minded senators from both parties pursued an elusive agreement.

"The attempt to do away with the filibuster is nothing short of clearing the trees for the confirmation of an unacceptable nominee to the Supreme Court," said Democratic leader Harry Reid. He accused the president of an attempt to "rewrite the Constitution and reinvent reality" with his demand for a yes-or-no vote on all nominees.

Countered Republican Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, "It's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942." He said Democratic protests over Republican efforts to ensure confirmation votes would be like the Nazi dictator seizing Paris and then saying, "I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city. It's mine."

The day of choreographed debate on the floor unfolded as compromise-minded senators negotiated in privately in the office of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and leaders of both parties held dueling staged-for-television events designed to court black voters.

'Legal hero'

"Why are they afraid to put a black woman on the court?" asked Bishop Harry Jackson, chairman of a group of black pastors, standing next to Majority Leader Bill Frist at a news conference outside the Capitol. Referring to Janice Rogers Brown, a California Supreme Court judge whom Bush has named to the federal appeals court, he called her "not only a legal hero for black America, she is a legal hero for all America."

Frist, R-Tenn., did not mention Brown's race in his own remarks. He said Democratic treatment of her nomination was "unnecessary, uncivil. It is injustice. I pledge to you here today that I will do everything in my power to see that it stops."

There was irony -- as members of the caucus noted -- since the historic civil rights legislation of a half-century ago was passed only after supporters overcame filibusters by conservative Southern Democrats and like-minded Republicans.

"The filibuster was systematically used when Senate minority rights meant the denial of the rights of African-Americans," caucus members wrote. "We cannot and will not stand down when Senate minority rights are proposed to be overruled against a Senate minority that seeks to protect the rights of African-Americans."

Frist has set the Senate on the path for a showdown next week on his bid to eliminate the Democrats' ability to filibuster present and future appeals court and Supreme Court nominees. While it takes 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, Republicans intend to supersede the rule by majority vote. With 55 seats, they could afford five defections and still prevail on the strength of Vice President Dick Cheney's ability to break ties.

Democrats have threatened to slow the Senate's business to a crawl if Republicans prevail, and they served up a preview during the day when they invoked a rule that prevented some committees from meeting. And with Frist's timetable calling for the critical votes to be cast next Tuesday and Wednesday, compromise-minded senators in both parties gathered in McCain's office three times during the day.

By agreeing among themselves, any six Republicans and six Democrats would hold the Senate's balance of power, making it impossible for Frist to engineer a change in procedures on one hand, and dooming future filibusters on the other.

"I think realistically it will have to go into next week," Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. said as discussions ended for the night.

Officials in both parties said there were two stumbling blocks.

One area under discussion involved which of Bush's nominees would be cleared for confirmation and which would continue to be held up. Under discussion when the day began was a plan to allow final votes on Brown as well as Priscilla Owen, named to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and William H. Pryor, who received a temporary appointment to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals after Democrats blocked a confirmation vote in Bush's first term. The less controversial 6th Circuit Court nominees, Susan Neilson, Richard Griffin and David McKeague, also would be cleared for votes under the proposal.

On the other hand, the nominations of William G. Myers and Henry Saad would remain stuck.

By evening, two of the Senate's most senior members, Republican John Warner of Virginia and Democrat Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, were attempting to draft compromise language on the other sticking point. It involved an exchange of "good faith" pledges by lawmakers. Democrats would agree not to filibuster future appeals court or Supreme Court nominees except in extraordinary cases. Republicans would agree not to support any changes in the filibuster procedures, although it was unclear what circumstances, if any, would permit them to change their minds.

Byrd also suggested that he and Warner were working on language where the president would pick his court nominees from a Senate-suggested pool of candidates, "possibly selected on the basis of discussions with state and federal chief justices, lawyers, people from academia and so forth."

"The president could disregard the pool altogether if he wants to, but I think this would encourage him to believe that here is a pool of names the Senate is receptive to because they're not so political," Byrd said.

While Frist and Reid are not party to the discussions, both have been monitoring them. Senate officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Reid had been forceful in private discussions with Democrats, trying to make sure that any compromise would maintain their right to filibuster future Supreme Court nominees while foreclosing Republicans from attempting to change the filibuster procedure.