A bipartisan group of senators continued negotiating behind closed doors Thursday to engineer a deal that would head off a showdown vote next week on changing the Senate filibuster rule.
A bipartisan deal would undercut the effort by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to lower the number of votes needed to stop debate on a judicial nominee from 60 to 51.
The group seeking compromise is headed on the GOP side by Arizona Sen. John McCain, Virginia Sen. John Warner, Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, and on the Democratic side by Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas.
Any deal that allows some Bush appeals court nominees to be "thrown overboard" would be unacceptable to Frist, but if six Republicans went along with the Democrats on this, then Frist would be powerless to stop it.
If Frist put the filibuster rule change to a vote next Tuesday, and six GOP senators voted 'no,' the majority leader would have failed. Frist, whom some in Washington think has presidential ambitions, has placed his credibility at stake by arguing so strongly in favor of giving every judicial nominee an up-or-down vote.
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