Bush Keeps Role in Senate Fray Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind

"Guess what we have in common," Leahy said to Bush.

"What -- you're both bald?" Bush quipped.

Leahy, a liberal Democrat, saw that Bush was in good humor, and he sensed an opening. He pleaded with Bush to help resolve the bitterly partisan Senate impasse over his judicial nominations.

"We can settle this in an hour," Leahy said, citing three other leading senators he thought could work together on an agreement. But Bush wouldn't hear of it, the lawmaker said.

"Well, I hope you keep working on it, but I told [Reid] I was going to stay out of it," the president said, referring to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

As his rebuff suggested, Bush has assumed a public posture of bystander as the Senate barrels toward a showdown that is likely to have repercussions far beyond the issue of whether every presidential appointment to the federal bench deserves an up-or-down vote.

Negotiations are underway this weekend to try to avert a collision over Senate Democrats' use of filibusters, or extended debate, to block the confirmation of Bush's judicial nominees they find objectionable.

Behind the scenes, however, the White House has become an active player. As recently as Tuesday, the vice president met privately with Republican senators to make the administration's case for holding up-or-down votes on its judicial nominees. Tim Goeglein, the White House public liaison, regularly participates in conference calls and strategy sessions with outside groups seeking to pressure wavering GOP senators.

Other White House aides have been involved, such as Candi Wolff, head of the congressional liaison office, who last week shepherded Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla R. Owen and California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown around Capitol Hill for meetings and photo opportunities. Brown and Owen are the most visible of Bush's judicial nominees who were blocked by filibusters in the last Congress.

Bush's strategy reflects a delicate balance that he and his strategists must maintain in the high-stakes effort to overcome Democratic opposition to some of his judicial nominees. Democrats have said they have filibustered a small number of Bush's judicial nominees because they find them to be extremists and judicial activists. They have accused the targeted nominees of relying more on conservative ideologies than the merits of the case in formulating their legal decisions.