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Santorum: Frist Will Go Nuclear Thursday 07 April 2005 Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, has reassured conservative activist leaders that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is committed to triggering the "nuclear option," stripping Democrats of the power to filibuster judicial nominees. Santorum met the leaders Tuesday to dispel growing anxiety among conservatives that Frist was wavering over what some Republicans call the "constitutional" or "Byrd" option - a procedural tactic that would disallow judicial filibusters by a ruling of the Senate chair and a ratifying majority vote. Conservative alarm surged when the Republican leadership canceled a briefing of Senate staff and activists by Martin Gold, a former Frist aide and master of Senate parliamentary procedure who is advising Republicans on the issue. The cancellation of the special meeting, which was scheduled for the Easter recess, left some with the impression that Frist might be backing away in the face of Democrats' threat to retaliate by shutting down the Senate. Business interests on K Street are urging Frist to delay the tactic because it could imperil their legislative agenda, as The Hill reported this week. The conservatives' concern was also fueled by Frist's efforts to negotiate with Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to find a compromise. One Democratic aide said that Frist appeared to be backing away from the tactic. Conservatives have also expressed concern about a paucity of information about GOP plans to overcome filibusters. GOP aides in the Senate said that they too know little about what is being planned; strategy and negotiations over the nuclear option are closely held within Frist's office. A Frist aide disputed the notion that his boss was not strongly committed to the controversial tactic. "Senator Frist has talked about this for two years, consistently and convincingly," the aide said. Senate aides and activists said Frist's chief of staff, Eric Ueland, is controlling strategy and timing on the issue. "We know there are some probably some faint of heart and that perhaps Mr. Frist is concerned about," said Connie Mackey, a lobbyist for the Family Research Council. "I think there does need to be more communication, but mostly I think there are particular senators holding up the process and they need to get with the party." Even Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), assistant majority leader, has been viewed as wavering. "We had actually said that we were going to run ads in Kentucky some weeks back, and we got assurances that he was ready to move," Mackey said. Last month, radio host Rush Limbaugh criticized McConnell after The Boston Globe reported that he had urged restraint on the option. McConnell responded by telling Fox News that he supported the controversial tactic. A conservative who requested anonymity for fear of angering the leadership said: "When you have conflicting signals at this late a date, it seriously damages our coalition's ability to support the senators in this." The activist said the message from Santorum was clear: "Man battle stations." Santorum said that he told conservative leaders, "We have to win" and "we have to have the votes" to confirm the president's nominees. Two conservative activists who were at Tuesday's meeting came away with a stronger message. According to them, Santorum reported that the Republican Conference is of one mind and that it would move ahead with the nuclear option in the next four to six weeks. But a Senate aide who attended the meeting downplayed Santorum's comments. "The leadership is trying to do everything it can to avoid the confrontation, and he's hopeful the Democrats would respond in kind," the aide said, summarizing Santorum's comments. "He did not at all say that we were fixing to do this at this point. He said there's a certain inevitability if Democrats didn't recognize the need for some give and take." The different accounts of Santorum's meeting reflect the Republican leaders' dual tasks - to motivate conservative groups for a showdown over the filibuster and to appear ready to compromise while negotiating with the Democrats. Frist and Reid spoke Monday and met yesterday to discuss the impasse. Frist has yet to give Reid any specific proposals for compromise. Yesterday, Frist declined to reveal his timeline for negotiations or what kind of compromise plan he may offer. Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), one of the most conservative Democrats in the chamber, have negotiated over a bipartisan compromise that they could forward to their leaders. But so far Lott and Nelson have yet to agree. Nelson has spoken with Reid several times about a compromise that would include automatically discharging a judicial nominee from the Judiciary Committee after an unspecified time. Any senator would then have the power to call that nominee up for a vote on the floor after another span of time. Lott has not agreed to the idea because it entails a permanent change of the rules and would take away the Judiciary Committee chairman's discretionary power over nominees, a Democratic aide said. Republican aides and conservative activists said that the leadership is most likely to trigger the constitutional option to force a confirmation vote on circuit court nominees Priscilla Owen or Janice Rogers Brown. The Senate Judiciary Committee has placed Owen on the agenda for a committee business meeting this week and scheduled Brown for next week. That means the soonest Republicans would trigger the tactic for Owen would be April 15 and the soonest for Brown would be April 22, a GOP aide said.
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