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While Senator Frist has 55 Senate Republicans he does not have 55 conservatives. While liberal Republicans are no longer the powerhouse they were (when I came to work in the Senate 38 years ago half of the 34 Republicans in office were out and out liberals) there are still a few of them. Frist can afford to lose five. Then Vice President Cheney, in his capacity as President of the Senate, would cast the tie vote in favor of the rules change, that is reverting the traditional rules. Frist, however, does not want to lose more than four votes. That way a majority of Senators would make the decision.

When it became apparent last week that Frist had enough votes to exercise the "constitutional option" Democrats began to throw out possible compromise proposals. The dean of Washington correspondents, David Broder, suggested that Democrats let the president's judicial nominees be approved in return for retaining the filibuster that could be used against a presidential nominee for the Supreme Court. Broder suggested that all of the nominees which the Democrats have filibustered get an up-or-down vote. There are seven such nominees. There were ten but three, for one reason or another, are not being re-submitted. Senator Joseph P. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) suggested that only five nominees should be approved and that the two most extreme nominees should not be approved. Imagine the president having to tell two of his nominees, "You are too extreme so you are not going to get a vote." Reid, for his part, spoke of approving only two of the president's nominees. As Senator Frist's policy director, Bill Wichterman, aptly said, "These Democrats are negotiating with themselves."

Senator Frist could not have voters believe the Democrats were willing to compromise and the mean old Republicans were unwilling to compromise. Not to be outdone, Frist offered a compromise of his own. It would leave the filibuster intact for Federal District Court nominees which have not been filibustered. For Circuit Courts and the Supreme Court nominations the Minority Party would get 100 hours of debate for each nominee after which an up-or-down vote would be guaranteed. Senator Reid called the proposal "a wet kiss for the extreme right wing." He did not reject it immediately because he did not want to look unreasonable.

Here we go again. In politics perception is reality. I suspect before this is over even more proposals will be offered by both sides. Frist last week told a luncheon held at the Free Congress facility on Capitol Hill that he would not accept any proposal which does not require an up-or-down vote for Circuit and Supreme Court nominees. If he sticks to his guns on that (Republicans are suckers for a deal) then Republicans well may end up detonating the "constitutional option" while still appearing to be the reasonable party.

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Paul M. Weyrich is the Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.

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