Frist Finally Takes A Stand

In an op-ed in today's Chicago Tribune, Sen. Bill Frist comes out firing at the Senate Dems. He's obviously still plenty ticked off about last weeks closed session stunt by Harry Reid, and has now come out with a firm statement that should the Dems attempt a filibuster of Judge Alito, the constitutional option will be deployed:

Starting during the last Congress, however, Democrats threw 214 years of Senate tradition out the window and used filibusters to stop the Senate from voting on 10 judicial nominees. The minority party subjected five others to filibuster threats and four nominees ultimately withdrew their names from consideration.

Because of the Democrats' interference, the Senate could not do its duty. I'm willing to consider any reasonable proposal on debate: If the Democrats believe that each senator should have a full hour to speak uninterrupted about Alito's nomination, I am open to the idea. But I will not negotiate about the Senate's constitutional duty to vote on the president's judicial nominees.

In the recent past, it has taken 60 votes to shut off debate and end a filibuster. The rules governing filibusters have changed a number of times, and the Constitution gives the Senate a clear right to modify them by simple majority vote. While serving as majority leader in the 1970s and 1980s, my Democratic colleague Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) altered Senate precedent with support from a simple majority of senators on four occasions in order to alter Senate procedures and end filibusters. Republicans disliked his use of this "constitutional option," but we know that he stood on firm ground.

If members of the Democratic minority persist in blocking a vote on Alito's nomination, the Senate will have no choice but to do what. Byrd did: exercise its constitutional rights and bring Alito's nomination up for a vote.

I hope that the Senate will conduct Alito's confirmation process with customary courtesy and civility. The process should move toward a January vote in an orderly manner. But if the Democratic minority chooses to obstruct the confirmation process, abuse Senate rules and violate the Constitution, I will not hesitate to put the constitutional option before my colleagues.

Frist has drawn a line in the sand. The real question now is, does he have the leadership skills to ensure that he can deliver the votes to enact the constitutional option. Given the way he mishandled the initial response to the Reid's stunt, I'm not sure he does.

The Dems are holding daily incoherent news conference charging the Administration with every type of evil imaginable, and I don't see the GOP leadership responding. If any of them have hopes of a 2008 presidential nomination, they'd better get off the dime and start fighting.