Senate, Bush reach judges deal

WASHINGTON- Senate Democrats on Tuesday freed dozens of President Bush's judicial nominees from confirmation limbo after reaching an agreement that will prevent the White House from bypassing objections to its most contentious choices.

Under the deal, Democrats will allow votes on 25 noncontroversial appointments to the district and appeals courts that they have been holding up for months. In exchange, Bush agreed not to invoke his constitutional power to make recess appointments while Congress is away, as he has done twice in recent months with judicial nominees.

The deal lasts until a second Bush presidency begins or a new president takes office, officials said. The agreement was struck days before the Senate began its Memorial Day recess, in a meeting among top Senate Democrats and Republicans as well as Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff.

"The president believes it is important to fill judicial vacancies in a timely manner, and this agreement is an important step in meeting that objective," White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said.

Both sides win, senators say. Bush gets 25 more judges placed on the U.S. District and Appeals courts in an election year, despite the fact that the Senate normally confirms fewer judges in a presidential election year than any other time.

Senate Democrats, in exchange, won't be forced to sit by and watch Bush give one- and two-year terms to judicial nominees they have spent four years and considerable resources to block.

Bush already trumped them by placing two Republicans on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: Charles Pickering, a former chairman of the Mississippi Republican party and father of GOP Rep. Chip Pickering, and William Pryor, the former attorney general of Alabama.

Democrats were furious, and they have been holding up all judicial nominees since March to get this promise.

The White House made the right move, said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. "I think they feel that it's more important to make progress than to hold out some possibility of another recess appointment, and they made the right decision," he told reporters.

While not pleased, Republican senators agreed it made sense.

"As a practical matter the likelihood of a recess appointment between now and Nov. 2 is very small, so I suggest to you that he's not really giving up a lot in exchange for an up-or-down vote on 25 judges," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. "It's, on balance, not a bad deal."

After the 25th judge is confirmed, the Senate will have put 198 of Bush's nominees on the federal trial and appeals courts, senators said.

Democrats have used the threat of a filibuster to block Senate confirmation of six U.S. Appeals Court nominees: Pickering, Pryor, Texas judge Priscilla Owen, Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada and California judges Carolyn Kuhl and Janice Rogers Brown.

Estrada has withdrawn his nomination, and two others, Idaho lawyer William Myers and Defense Department lawyer William Haynes, have not received votes in the Senate.

Several others are stuck at committee level.

It takes 60 senators to force a confirmation vote in the Senate, which is split with 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and one Democratic-leaning independent, Jim Jeffords of Vermont.

Owen, Kuhl, Brown and other judicial nominees Democrats found objectionable are not part of the impending deal, Daschle said. White House nominees for positions outside the federal courts also are not part of the deal.

Democrats first threatened to hold up Bush's nominees in March, one month after Bush gave Pryor an almost two-year stint on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The president in January gave Pickering a one-year term on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

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