Is GOP Prepared To Go Nuclear?

Senate Republicans Mull Rule Change To Eliminate Filibusters

(CBS)  By Scott Conroy of the CBS News Political Unit

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The filibuster – that longstanding political version of running out the clock – may be on the verge of extinction, but not if People For the American Way can help it. The left-leaning political advocacy group has initiated a television-advertising blitz to oppose the elimination of the filibuster option for blocking controversial judicial nominations.

At the National Press Club on Wednesday, the group introduced its $5 million campaign to resist a potential Republican effort to implement the so-called "nuclear option," which would change Senate rules to allow judicial confirmations to pass by a simple majority of 51 senators. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has hinted that he may resort to taking steps toward that unprecedented move and states on his Web site, "The need to reform the filibuster of nominations is obvious and urgent."

Under current filibuster rules, 41 senators who oppose a controversial bill or judicial nominee can vote to continue debate and thereby block a final vote on the issue unless a supermajority of 60 senators vote to end the debate and call a vote.

"[The filibuster] underscores the genius of the founders of this great nation," said People for the American Way president Robert Neas. "It forces Republicans and Democrats to sit down and work things out."

If Frist decides to pursue the nuclear option, Vice President Dick Cheney, who serves as president of the Senate, would have to rule that filibusters against judicial nominees are unconstitutional, according to The Washington Post. The Senate would then vote to uphold the ruling, and if a majority agree with Cheney, filibusters against judicial nominees would effectively be eliminated. Upon passage of this ruling, the bar for confirming nominees would be lowered from 60 to 51 votes. If utilized, Neas said the maneuver would amount to a "horrible, unprecedented, parliamentary dirty trick."

In its new 60-second TV, People For the American Way evokes the Hollywood image of Sen. Jefferson Smith in the 1939 film, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," which features the fictional senator nobly utilizing a filibuster to make his voice heard. The screen then shifts to Ted Nonini, a soft-spoken, folksy Republican firefighter, who explains why he thinks it is important to keep the filibuster in place.

"I like that my party controls the White House and the Congress," he says. "But I also know that our democracy works best when both parties are speaking out and being heard."