Specter wary of ‘nuclear option’

Transcript:

Specter transcript

The new Senate Judiciary Committee chairman favors more negotiations with Democrats over the so-called “nuclear option” Republicans could use to push President Bush’s judicial nominees through Democratic filibusters.

“I’m trying to set the stage to get the job done without going to the nuclear option,” Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, said in a wide-ranging interview Friday with The Washington Times.

He was asked if he would support the “nuclear option” — changing Senate rules so that executive nominees can’t be filibustered — if negotiations fail.

“I’m not going to jump off that bridge until I come to it, and I hope I don’t come to it,” said Mr. Specter, sitting in his office on the first floor of the Capitol.

Backers of the option — termed “nuclear” because of its potential fallout in the Senate — say they have the 51 votes necessary to enact it and say it could be used at any moment. Some conservatives have complained for more than a year that the option hasn’t already been employed to dislodge the 10 filibustered Bush nominees.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee gave Democrats until the end of last month to decide whether they wanted to continue the filibusters. If so, he said, they may face the nuclear option the next time a judicial nominee comes to the floor.

Barely into his second month as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Specter already is leaving his imprint. So far, he’s employed rigid time restraints on committee members and their meetings, helped confirm a new attorney general and approved sweeping tort-reform legislation, which is being debated on the Senate floor this week.

And his plans for the year are equally ambitious.

He wants to hold hearings on sentencing guidelines that the Supreme Court struck down last month, a move by the court, he said, that did not surprise him. Mr. Specter did not say whether he agreed with the high court’s decision, but warned against reacting too swiftly.

“It may be that the guidelines will be observed except with extraordinary cases, which may provide a guidance for legislation,” he said. “Let us see what the judges do, piece by piece.”

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