US: The Republican-led US Senate yesterday cleared the way for a confirmation vote on one of President Bush's most controversial judicial nominees.
On a vote of 81-18, it moved to end debate on Mr Bush's bid to put Texas Supreme Court justice Priscilla Owen on the 5th US Court of Appeals.
First nominated by Mr Bush four years ago, Ms Owen is now ready to be confirmed thanks largely to a compromise reached on Monday night by 14 of the Senate's 100 members.
However with Senate leaders already debating what the accord means, the real test may come when Mr Bush makes his first nomination to the US Supreme Court. That could occur within months since ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist is expected to retire soon.
"I'm pleased that the Senate is moving forward on my judicial nominees who were previously being blocked," Mr Bush said in upstate New York. "These nominees have been waiting years for an up or down vote on the Senate floor and now they'll get one."
The bipartisan compromise was signed by seven Democrats and seven Republicans independent of their respective leaders. It provided enough senators to assure confirmation votes on Ms Owen and two other long-stalled nominees to the federal appeals bench, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor.
Yet it explicitly made no commitment on two others, Henry Saad and William Myers.
The compromise averted an anticipated vote on whether to strip Democrats of their power to block Mr Bush's judicial nominees. If Republicans had prevailed, Democrats had vowed to retaliate.
The deal preserved for the minority, in this case Democrats, the ability to use a filibuster to block future judicial nominees.
They agreed to do so only "under extraordinary circumstances". And it left up to the seven Democrats and seven Republicans who signed the agreement to "use his or her own discretion and judgment in determining when such circumstances exit".
Senate majority leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, declared: "The agreement, if followed in good faith, I believe will make filibusters in the future, including Supreme Court nominees, almost impossible."
Senate minority leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, disagreed, saying: "All filibusters are extraordinary. There will be filibusters of judges and of other things."
Mr Frist insisted that a possible change in procedures to ban judicial filibusters, dubbed "the nuclear option" by foes, "remains on the table".
Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and one of the 14 who signed, said the accord "gives us a chance to start over" and learn from previous mistakes on both sides in handling judicial nominees.
The bipartisan compromise also had a pointed message for Mr Bush: consult with Democrats and Republicans before sending any more judicial nominees to the Senate for confirmation.
"Such a return to the early practices of our government may well serve to reduce the rancour that unfortunately accompanies the 'advise and consent' process in the Senate," the 14 senators wrote.
Republicans had accused Democrats of unprecedented obstructionism by blocking 10 of Mr Bush's court nominees. Democrats said Mr Bush was trying to pack the courts with right-wing extremists.