Frist: Nuclear Option "Almost Inevitable"

USA Today interviewed Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist over the weekend, and the Tennessean told the paper he's "running out of options" to avert nuclear war in the Senate, calling a showdown vote on the unprecedented rules changes "almost inevitable" and that the "'extreme partisanship' in the Senate justifies the move."

The big news out of the interview, however, is the timing: Frist told the paper that a vote will come before Memorial Day.

As I've said repeatedly [here, here, etc.], there is an answer to this. Frist should have taken Sen. Reid's magnanimous and eminently fair compromise last week when it was offered - a vote on four or five of the disputed judges and the voluntary withdrawal of the others. That is a compromise. Frist's counter-offer (more talk about each judge but then total victory for him and his "Justice Sunday" crowd in the end) was nothing short of ludicrous - not to mention no compromise at all. Reid was right to reject it.

Changing the Senate's rules in the way the nuclear option would is a dangerous and short-sighted solution to an easily-solved problem. The "all or nuclear" approach taken by the current GOP leadership goes against the views of a majority of Republicans as well as a majority of Americans, and ought to be set aside in the interests of moving forward on issues of real importance to the American people. Senator Frist, go and sit down with Senator Reid, just the two of you. Reach an agreement. And then move on.


- In semi-related filibuster news, students at Princeton University have been filibustering round-the-clock outside the Frist Campus Center [yes, that Frist] to protest the nuclear option. TalkingPointsMemo has been covering the protests, which have attracted several elected officials. This morning's Washington Post features a short piece on the filibuster as well. You can visit the protest website here. Keep it up!