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The Senate standoff

Moderates on both sides must help bring the showdown over judicial nominees to an end before the Senate is irreparably damaged.

The game of chicken being played in the Senate needs to end before both Republicans and Democrats come to regret the consequences. Republicans are threatening to employ, as early as this week, the "nuclear option" to end the filibuster of President Bush's judicial nominees. Democrats have warned they will retaliate by disrupting Senate business. Such rancid partisanship could seriously damage the Senate as a vital democratic institution, further polarize the country and undermine public confidence in the federal judiciary.

Surely there are enough senators in both parties to head off this madness. In a healthy democracy, lawmakers should seek a compromise rather than a destructive showdown.

Let's be clear: The hypocrisy and dishonesty run knee-deep on both sides of the aisle. Democrats and Republicans have used filibusters and other procedural means over the years to kill judicial and other nominations. This fight is not about principle on either side; it is about partisan politics.

As a deliberative body designed to resist the political passions of the moment, the Senate has served as a check on the kind of runaway partisanship we have in the House of Representatives, requiring compromise to pass legislation even when one party controls both houses of Congress. Once the GOP majority has forced the Senate to bend to their will on judicial appointments, does anyone believe it will accept Democratic filibusters on key legislation?

Despite several feeble attempts at compromise by both sides, GOP Majority Leader Bill Frist isn't budging. Neither is the Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.

Democrats haven't helped their cause by demonizing some of the disputed judges and distorting their records. The attacks on some of the more controversial nominees have been coordinated by activist groups on both the left and the right that have deluged the public with TV commercials and programs twisting the facts to advance their ideological agendas.

Bush is demanding an up or down vote on all his judicial nominees - a courtesy no other American president has enjoyed. The Senate has confirmed more than 200 of Bush's district court nominees, but has used the filibuster to block 10 nominees for appellate judgeships. Looming in the background, of course, is the expected fight over whomever Bush nominates to the Supreme Court if Chief Justice William Rehnquist, still fighting thyroid cancer, retires from the bench this summer.

Time is short, but it's not too late for moderates on both sides to find a compromise that can save the Senate from itself. Surely there are enough responsible senators to end this dangerous game of chicken.

[Last modified May 17, 2005, 01:37:19]