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By Paul Zummo Posted in Fillibuster — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

The Wall Street Journal weighs in this morning with an editorial discussing Senate leader Bill Frist finally drawing a line in the sand on judicial filibusters.

It's been a long time coming, but we now have an approximate date for a confrontation in the Senate on judicial nominations. Majority Leader Bill Frist has announced that if Democrats filibuster the nominations he expects to bring to the floor next month, he'll take action.

The Journal continues to explore the history of the filibuster, and notes that Frist's proposal is not all that radical.

Which brings us to the proposed change in Senate precedents that Democrats call the "nuclear option" to make it sound radical. If the Democrats filibuster again, Mr. Frist would ask for a ruling from the presiding officer that under Senate Rule XXII only a simple majority vote is required to end debate on judicial nominations. Assuming 51 Senators concur, the Senate would then proceed to an up-or-down floor vote on the nominee. . .

Democrats inclined to cry foul would benefit from studying Senate history. They could start by querying their own Senator Robert Byrd who, during his years as Majority Leader, employed the same tactic four times to reinterpret Senate precedents. Martin Gold and Dimple Gupta detail this history in an essay in the current Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.

The history of the filibuster itself also bears noting--particularly by those Republicans who are worried about "giving up" a useful tool when they return to the minority. No one was more concerned with checking majority passions than the Founders, but even they never felt the need for a super-majority Senate voting requirement. The filibuster first appeared in the 1830s during the debates over the Bank of the United States and by 1917 had gotten so out of control that the Senate passed its first "cloture" rule limiting debate. It's been modified numerous times since then, and only in recent years has it evolved to where just about anything that passes (save the annual budget) needs 60 votes.

We're finally getting closer.