Reid: Nuclear Showdown Unavoidable. Nelson: Not So Fast

The Associated Press reports this evening that the prospect of compromise instead of the nuclear option grows dimmer by the hour. After a private meeting with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist Monday evening, Reid spoke to reporters and said "I've tried to compromise and they want all or nothing, and I can't do that."

Nearly simultaneously, the AP report adds, a "small group of Democrats" was circulating a proposed compromise, this version in writing. Under this new agreement, "Republicans would have to pledge no change through 2006 in the Senate's rules that allow filibusters against judicial nominees. For their part, Democrats would commit not to block votes on Bush's Supreme Court or appeals court nominees during the same period, except in extreme circumstances," and would agree to the confirmation of five of the eight judges currently under dispute.

Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska reportedly floated this plan last evening while at Senator Frist's home for dinner with other senators, including Reid. The AP reports that his office declined to provide details of the compromise and of which other Democratic senators were involved in the drafting of the plan; a spokesman for Arkansas' Mark Pryor, however said his boss was "the number two Democrat" behind the proposal.

Like the other proposals for compromise, this one is painful to both sides, but crippling to neither. I hope that enough Democrats and Republicans can unite behind it to turn it from a plan into reality. It's going to take leadership now, not partisan rhetoric, to bring us back from the nuclear brink - if Frist and Reid are unable to provide that leadership to get us through this storm, they ought to hand over the reins to senators who can.