Possible Alito filibuster heats up D.C.

WASHINGTON — A Senate vote on Samuel Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court isn't due until January, but political bickering heated up this past week over the potential use of a filibuster to block his nomination.

For his part, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has asked Senate Democrats to take the filibuster option completely off the table when it comes to Alito's nomination.

"Let us agree, right here and now, that this body will do its duty of fully debating the Alito nomination and then voting on it," Hatch said in a speech he prepared to deliver in the Senate. "The Constitution, Senate tradition and the American people demand no less."

Hatch had intended to give the speech on the Senate floor, but scheduling problems allowed him only to insert it into the Congressio\nal Record.

A majority of Utahns support the nomination of Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court, a new poll shows. A Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV survey conducted by Dan Jones & Associates found 65 percent approve of his nomination by President Bush to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Of the 400 people surveyed in November, only 13 percent disapprove of Bush's choice. The poll has a margin or error of plus or minus 5 percent.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said on Fox News last week that he would stop Democrats from filibustering Alito's nomination if they decided to do that.

"I think it would be unconscionable, I think it would be wrong, I think it would be against the intent of the founding fathers and our Constitution to deny Sam Alito an up or down vote on the floor of the United States Senate," Frist said, according to a transcript.

Frist said he would use the so-called "nuclear option," a Senate procedural move, if the filibuster came up. A filibuster can only be broken by 60 votes. The Senate has only 55 Republicans, so Frist would have to convince five Democrats to defect.

To get around that obstacle, Frist would simply ask for a vote saying that filibusters are not eligible for judicial nominations. He would only need 51 votes, and that could then cancel the filibuster. Such a move became an issue earlier this year but was avoided when 14 senators reached an agreement to stop the fight. Seven Democrats said that filibusters on judges would only be used in "extraordinary circumstances," and seven Republicans said they would object to rules changes needed to invoke the "nuclear option."

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., criticized Frist on the Senate floor Monday for "threatening" to take away the filibuster power. Byrd said Democrats are not talking about filibustering the nominee.