The center holds clout

WASHINGTON -- Emerging from their weeks of negotiations like a long-sequestered jury, Senate moderates delivered a stunning verdict to the White House and Congress: Politicians have spent too much time rallying their bases of support and not enough time coming together in the national interest.

Bruised by the sharp elbows of an administration determined to create a lockstep majority and of a Democratic Party equally determined to appease liberal backers, the 14 moderate senators seized control of the Senate agenda in a coup that could have ramifications far beyond the narrow issue of judicial appointments.

The unusual coalition of senators -- a mix of Republicans mostly from the Democratic-dominated North and Midwest, and Democrats from the Republican-dominated South and West -- spoke of their efforts in heroic terms, declaring repeatedly that they had rescued the Senate from the perils of partisanship.

Senate patriarch Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, quoted Benjamin Franklin and declared ''the republic is saved" in flowery oratory that echoed the chamber's Victorian heyday. Connecticut Democrat Joseph Lieberman spoke eagerly of how ''maybe this empowered bipartisan center will decide that it's been good to work together and we'll keep on working together to get good things done for the American people."

But the most succinct description came from the politician with perhaps the greatest claim to represent the bipartisan center, Arizona Republican John McCain: ''This agreement is meant in the finest traditions of the Senate it was entered into: trust, respect, and mutual desire to see the institution of the Senate function in ways that protect the rights of the minority."

McCain's triumphant announcement was a sharp contrast with a suddenly very lonely Senate majority leader Bill Frist, at the podium alone in the Senate chamber like a British prime minister with his Parliament gone.

Frist, a potential rival to McCain in the 2008 GOP presidential primaries, reiterated his belief that the Constitution requires the Senate to provide an up-or-down vote on judges -- a position scholars have widely dismissed. He vowed to keep alive the option of ending the filibuster rule, under which a bloc of 40 senators can prevent a judicial nominee from reaching a vote.

But with seven Republicans having defected to the McCain-brokered compromise and no Democrats on his side, Frist had lost control of the Senate agenda.

Some of the blame for overreaching in seeking to change the filibuster rule -- the so-called ''nuclear option" -- must go to Frist himself, who catered to the demands of religious conservatives for a more socially conservative judiciary. But another load of blame will be delivered to the White House, where Vice President Dick Cheney, among others, had called for a change in the filibuster rule.

South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, once considered a sure vote for changing the filibuster rule, said he opted for compromise partly in the expectation that ''the White House is going to get more involved, and they are going to listen to us more."

Graham also talked about the need for the Senate to participate in remaking Social Security, a comment that seemed to open the door to compromise on another issue frozen by partisan rancor.

Whether Democrats and Republicans can find enough common ground to remake Social Security is unclear. But it will be just the first of a long list of issues to come before the Senate's suddenly bold -- and surprisingly potent -- coalition of angry moderates.