Bi-Partisan Group Defuses Nuclear Option

Fourteen "centrist" Senators -- seven from each party -- have made public a compromise agreement that will allow confirmation votes to move forward on Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor (all nominated to appellate courts). In exchange for the Democrats agreeing not to filibuster these nominees, the Republicans agreed not to support changes to filibuster rules.

The bi-partisan group may include (cobbled together from news reports) :

• Democrats : Byrd (WVA) ; Inouye (HI) ; Landrieu (LA) ; Lieberman (CT) ; Nelson (NE) ; Pryor (AR) ; Salazar (CO) ; Schumer (NY)
• Republicans : Chafee (RI) ; Collins (ME) ; DeWine (OH) ; Graham (SC) ; McCain (AZ) ; Snowe (ME) ; Warner (VA)

Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) each distanced themselves from the centrists and the compromise process. It was necessitated by a motion on Friday, by Sen. Cornyn (R-TX), to end debate; the vote was set for Tuesday.

Other leaders, such as John McCain (R-AZ), a rumored presidential candidate in 2008, embraced the compromise:

We're here, 14 Republicans and Democrats, seven on each side, to announce that we have reached an agreement to try to avert a crisis in the United States Senate and pull the institution back from a precipice that would have had, in the view of all 14 of us, lasting impact, damaging impact on the institution.

News reports quoted McCain as saying, "This agreement is meant in the finest traditions of the Senate it was entered into: trust, respect and mutual desire to see the institution of the Senate function in ways that protect the rights of the minority."

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Statements from the Senate: Boxer, Byrd, Cornyn Durbin, Feinstein, First, Hatch, Lott, Reed, Schumer