The Democrats’ intimidation tactics

The prevailing wisdom in the mainstream media and Washington politicians is that Republicans are making a mistake by campaigning to end the Democrats’ use of the filibuster to deny President Bush’s judicial nominees a Senate floor vote. But judging from the frenzied reaction to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s nationwide appeal on Sunday, the Democrats and their allies sound like magpies in a frenzy when they hear the sound of guns in the forest.

In recent days, Democrats have depicted the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, which sponsored Sunday night’s telecast from a church in Louisville, Ky., as demonizing liberal Democratic senators who use the filibuster to block judicial nominations as “anti-Christian.” The conservative Christians are right to be upset over the way that Democratic pols and their allies, like People For the American Way, have intimated that judicial nominees who are Christian and who have criticized Roe v. Wade are”outside the mainstream” and unqualified for the federal bench.

Led by Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, a leading obstructionist stalwart on judicial nominations, Democrats suggest darkly that by working with conservatives who criticize judicial activism Mr. Frist could be encouraging physical assaults on judges. Earlier this month, Mr. Schumer released an open letter to Mr. Frist calling on him denounce those who have the temerity to criticize judges’ behavior. “The last thing we need is inflammatory rhetoric which on its face encourages violence against judges,” Mr. Schumer wrote. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid complained that Mr. Frist is a “radical Republican” for even speaking to the Christians at Louisville. The telecast was made available over the Internet.

Messrs. Schumer’s and Reid’s complaints are ridiculous. “I don’t think it’s radical to ask senators to vote,” Mr. Frist told the Louisville gathering. “Now, if Senator Reid continues to obstruct the process, we will consider what opponents call the ‘nuclear option,’ ” which would change the Senate rules to take away the ability of just 41 senators to defeat a judicial nominee by filibustering. “Only in the United States Senate,” the majority leader said, “could it be considered a devastating option to allow a vote. Most places call that democracy.”

The Senate Democratic minority, deeply worried about losing its ability to torpedo the president’s judicial nominations, is playing hardball to dissuade the business community from supporting Republican efforts to change Senate rules. Last week, Sens. Herbert Kohl of Wisconsin and Thomas Carper of Delaware sent a threatening letter to business leaders, warning them to “either speak out against the nuclear option or stand by while the majority undermines our desire to work together and develop common-sense solutions to America’s problems.” Such intimidation should be political suicide in the long run, but on Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers — who often complain the loudest about wacky rulings of the courts — have declined to back the effort to end judicial filibusters. Given the success that the Democrats seem to have had in putting the business community in its place, we can look forward to more hardball in the weeks ahead.