Filibuster debate grows uglier

Compromise-minded senators negotiated privately.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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 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.
"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."
He made his comments after members of the Congressional Black Caucus said he had declined to meet with them to discuss the issue. An aide said Frist was speaking on the Senate floor at the time. The Democratic lawmakers proceeded to a news conference where they released a letter to the Tennessee Republican arguing that his call for a partial ban on judicial filibusters "would be particularly offensive to people of color."
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."
Making plans
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.