Republican Leader Offers Compromise on Judges - Yahoo! News
If I'm reading this right, the compromise is -"We will keep the filibuster as long as you don't use it." Which effectively bans the filibuster. Screw that. Stick to your guns, Harry.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republican leader Bill Frist offered a compromise in a battle over President Bush's judicial nominees, but a top Democrat called it a "wet kiss" to the right wing.

Frist's proposal seeks to avert a showdown over Republican threats to change Senate rules in order to ban procedural roadblocks known as filibusters against judicial nominees.

Democrats have filibustered 10 of Bush's candidates whom they have deemed "right-wing ideologues," and have vowed retaliation in response to any ban on the filibuster, which permits unlimited debate.

Frist, the Senate majority leader, said he would "guarantee" up to 100 hours to debate any nominee to the appeals courts or U.S. Supreme Court. But Frist also said he would require that they all get a confirmation vote, meaning filibusters against these candidates would be banned.

"It may not be a perfect proposal for either side, but it's the right proposal for America," said Frist as he stood in the Senate.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, called the proposal a "big wet kiss to the far right," which has pushed to ban judicial filibusters and get more conservatives on the bench.

Under Frist's proposal, filibusters would still be permitted against district-court nominees. But that could change, an aide said, if Democrats start to filibuster them.

So far, Democrats have limited their judicial filibusters to appeals-court nominees, having blocked 10 of them during Bush's first term.

The president renominated seven of them after winning reelection in November, and Democrats have said that they would again filibuster these candidates.

Smackdown time. I hope the Dems don't cave of this.