ConfirmThem

By DanCT Posted in Senate Rules — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

John Harwood (WSJ) says it's not clear yet whether Sen. Frist has the votes:

I think the outcome on this is still unclear. There's some talk of negotiations between the two parties to try to sort of back away from this. But Bill Frist, the majority leader, has got himself in a position where he's probably got to go for this. But he may not have 50 votes to make this happen.

I can think of some other reasons why Sen. Frist is waiting until next week to go ahead with the vote, even if he has the votes right now. The GOP really needs to go through all the political hoops in searching for the right solution. That solution may well be a "compromise", but even the "constitutional option" itself is not particularly well-defined. There are a number of ways to implement it, and it's important to get it right. Also, there are a lot of things competing for a Senator's attention (e.g. Bolton), and some Senators may not have really thought through it enough yet to make a decision. The pressure of a looming deadline (next week) tends to bring a measure of clarity and decisiveness to wobbling Senators. In addition, the Democrats may somewhat gum up the works once the vote is taken, so the GOP leadership wants to postpone it as long as possible to get some work done first.

With Chafee, McCain, and Snowe clearly defecting, Frist would need two from Collins, Warner, and Hagel. The Republican vote counters have been sounding pretty confident.