Deal in Senate averts filibuster showdown

WASHINGTON -- With just hours left before a historic vote, a bipartisan group of senators announced a compromise last night that will avert a bruising battle over the future of judicial filibusters, tabling for now a contentious issue that had threatened to fundamentally alter the working of the Senate.

The agreement, announced by the coalition at about 7:30 p.m., denied Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist the votes he needed to push through a rules change that would ban filibusters, the maneuver that Democrats have used to indefinitely sidetrack some of President Bush's judicial nominees. Frist had scheduled a vote for this afternoon, but said last night he would pull the rules change he sought off the table -- for the time being.

Under the agreement -- signed by seven Democrats and seven Republicans, but neither party's leaders -- the Republicans will preserve the minority party's right to filibuster judges for the rest of the 2005-2006 congressional session. In return, the Democrats will allow votes on three of President Bush's five most controversial nominees, and promise to limit their use of filibusters to ''extraordinary circumstances."

''We have reached an agreement to try to avert a crisis in the United States Senate, and to pull the institution back from the precipice," said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, one of the chief negotiators. ''I believe that good will will prevail."

After a press conference announcing the deal, Senate minority leader Harry Reid and other top Democrats embraced the senators who negotiated it. By contrast, Frist, alone at the Senate rostrum, said he was happy the high-stakes showdown was over but disappointed that the issue of judges wasn't settled for good.

Indeed, both sides conceded that the deal could fall apart when the next Supreme Court vacancy arises, perhaps by this summer.

The Democrats still have the right to assert that an ''extraordinary circumstance" includes an objectionable nomination, and can still use the filibuster to block it. The Republicans, in turn, can back out of last night's deal and revive the vote to kill filibusters.

Senator Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat, conceded that the last-minute deal reflects political reality more than soaring principles. Still, he said, the deal keeps faith with the best Senate traditions of cooperation and mutual respect.

''We don't have a Thomas Jefferson in the bunch," Pryor said of the negotiators. ''This came as a result of perspiration, not inspiration."

For decades, senators have been able to tie up legislation by refusing to stop debating -- a filibuster. Considered a vital tool of the minority party, the rules were amended: Filibusters can be stopped only if 60 of 100 senators vote to do so, meaning that a bloc of 41 senators can prevent a vote on any matter. Changing that rule would have required the vote of a simple majority of senators, a vote no one was sure of last evening.

The agreement was reached less than 17 hours before Frist planned to call the vote banning filibusters -- a move he has said was necessary because Democrats abused the procedure to scuttle 10 of Bush's 218 first-term judicial nominees.

Yesterday, as leaders anticipated a rare all-night debate, workers rolled in cots to meeting rooms. Both sides had planned screenings of ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," to derive inspiration for the legislative combat ahead. Senators from both parties took turns delivering impassioned speeches on the Senate floor, trying to convince mostly-absent colleagues.

If Frist had set in motion the so-called nuclear option to strip them of the filibuster, Democrats had vowed retaliation by slowing Senate business to a crawl, crippling the Republicans' domestic agenda. Reid and other party leaders insisted the threat was necessary to preserve the federal government's system of checks and balances: the ability of a determined minority of at least 40 senators to stop a polarizing nominee from becoming a judge.

The moderates' deal is a major political setback for Frist, a Tennessee Republican who is mulling a 2008 presidential bid.

Frist had been under intense pressure from conservative interest groups to ''go nuclear," clearing the way for Bush's conservative judges to reach the federal bench. Still, some members of Frist's own party were uncomfortable with forcing the rules change in the Senate, which has long valued deliberation and cooperation among its members.

In his speech, Frist pointed out that he was not a party to the agreement. He said he was glad that some nominees the Democrats targeted will get votes, but said he wanted up-or-down votes on all of them. ''The agreement announced tonight falls short of that principle," Frist said.

The deal is also a blow to Bush, who as recently as yesterday morning publicly urged the Senate to grant approve-or-reject votes to all of his nominees.

''I expect them to get an up or down vote," Bush said at a White House press conference with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. ''And I think the American people expect that, as well."

The bipartisan agreement includes a not-so-subtle jab at Bush, who this year renominated seven of the 10 judges that the Senate blocked during his first term.

''We encourage the executive branch of government to consult with members of the Senate, both Democratic and Republican, prior to submitting a judicial nomination to the Senate for consideration," the agreement states.

Reid celebrated the agreement by heading to the Senate floor to rip up a list he said he had carried in his pocket for a month: Republican senators he tried to persuade to buck Frist and keep Senate rules in place. At a hastily arranged press conference last night, he declared victory.

''We have sent President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and the radical arm of the Republican base an undeniable message: An abuse of power will not be tolerated -- will not be tolerated by Democrats or Republicans," said Reid, Democrat of Nevada.

The deal commits Democrats to a vote on two nominees who were being discussed this week, Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen, as well as William Pryor, whose nomination has also been stalled in the past. The agreement states that ''no commitment" is offered on guaranteeing votes for two other judges, William Myers and Henry Saad, meaning their nominations are likely to be filibustered.

The Democratic senators signing the agreement were Mark Pryor, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, Ken Salazar of Colorado, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.

The Republicans signing were McCain, John W. Warner of Virginia, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Susan M. Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.

The negotiators struggled with finding an acceptable compromise for much of the past week. But senators said Frist's scheduling of a vote for today ushered talks along in the final meeting, which lasted only about an hour in McCain's office late yesterday afternoon.

''It was now or never," Collins said.

Susan Milligan and Scot Lehigh of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.