Filibuster

A group of Senate Democrats decided Thursday to launch a last-ditch filibuster effort to block the confirmation of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court, a move they acknowledged would be an uphill fight. Alito's confirmation appears all but certain -- more than half of the Senate's 100 members have announced they would vote for him. Along with nearly unanimous support from the chamber's 55 Republicans, Alito on Thursday picked up the backing of two Democrats -- Sens. Robert C.

Democrats lined up Friday for and against a last-ditch effort to block the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr., with some supporting the call for a filibuster even as they acknowledged it was unlikely to succeed. "Everyone knows there are not enough votes to support a filibuster," said Democratic leader Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who said he would nonetheless vote against ending debate on the president's choice to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

A Democratic attempt to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. ended in failure Monday, with almost half of the Senate's Democrats voting against it -- an outcome that cleared the way for Alito's confirmation to a seat on the high court today. Massachusetts Sens. John F. Kerry and Edward M.

Talk of filibustering the president's judicial picks is back -- even before Barack Obama has nominated anyone to the federal courts. When the balance of power shifts in Washington, views on the virtues of filibustering tend to shift with it. Four years ago, the Senate Republican majority faulted the minority Democrats for threatening what they deemed an "unconstitutional filibuster" of President Bush's court nominees.

McCain on the trail: An article in Saturday's Section A about John McCain's campaign in Colorado said Democrats could reach a "veto-proof" majority of 60 senators. It should have said a filibuster-proof majority.

James B. Pearson, a progressive Republican who represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate for 17 years, died Tuesday at his home in Gloucester, Mass. He was 88. Pearson had been on kidney dialysis for several years, said Dave Seaton, his former press secretary, but the cause of death was not immediately known. Seaton said Pearson championed causes including deregulating natural gas, expanding international trade and reducing the number of votes required to end a filibuster. He also broke with the Nixon White House and sought an early end to U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

After months of taunts and threats, Republicans and Democrats are preparing to escalate a conflict over what each side describes as the "nuclear option" -- changing the rules for confirming federal judges. The countdown begins today when members of Congress return from a two-week spring break. According to some scenarios, it could reach legislative Armageddon by the end of the month.

Re "Senate Primed for Filibuster Showdown," April 4: Never have our basic democratic traditions been in such grave danger as they currently are from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's (R-Tenn.) plan to unveil the "nuclear option," which would end the centuries-old, time-tested safeguard against majority excess known as the filibuster. This procedural device was installed as a check against a majority run amok with a fanatical agenda, the precise reason why the far right wing in Washington now wants to dismantle it. President Bush and his backers from the business community and the religious right have a vision in mind for all of us. They want a country with a judiciary that will rubber-stamp their anti-consumer, anti-worker, anti-poor, anti-disabled, anti-civil-rights, anti-religious-freedom agenda.

A historic confrontation over the federal courts and the rights of legislative minorities continued to escalate Saturday, as a key Democrat sharpened his criticism of Republican threats to eliminate the filibuster for judicial nominations. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada charged that barring the use of the filibuster against court nominees would reduce the Senate to "a rubber stamp for the president."

Re "Filibuster Doubletalk," Commentary, April 6: On March 30, columnist and Editorial Page Editor Andres Martinez likened the powerful tobacco industry to detainees at Guantanamo Bay. On April 6, he claims the NAACP's campaign to encourage a filibuster against the GOP-controlled Senate is akin to the civil rights group "encouraging Southern pride in the Confederate flag." Recently, Martinez defended airlines overcome with outrageous customer expectations. The overstatement and lack of proportion Martinez shows in his columns reveal a dangerous tendency for a man who controls the editorial position of the second-largest daily newspaper in the U.S. and L.A.'s only real newspaper.