New GOP Senators May Back Filibuster Limits

[Khephra]

Amid talk about a renewal of bipartisanship in the new Congress that convenes next week, two new Republican senators said Sunday that they could support a rule change to short-circuit opposition to President Bush's judicial nominees — a move that one incoming Senate Democrat warned would spark "a bloody fight."

The exchange among the three newly elected senators on CBS' "Face the Nation" reflected a sense among many Republicans that they should flex their muscle in the 109th Congress, with the party's expanded majorities in the Senate and House, even as Democrats were debating among themselves when to work with the administration and when to oppose it.

Sen.-elect John Thune (R-S.D.) said he wanted to put an end to the Democratic tactic of filibustering high-profile judicial nominees — which involves essentially talking the nominations to death without allowing an up or down confirmation vote.

Senate Republican leaders, bolstered by the party's Nov. 2 victories, are weighing a move to deny Democrats the right to filibuster judicial nominees indefinitely in the coming Congress. The issue is especially sensitive since Bush's announcement last week that he would renominate seven people for appellate courts who were stymied by filibusters during the last Congress — and in light of the possibility of upcoming Supreme Court vacancies.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-congress27dec27,1,5728406.story?coll=la-headlines-nation