A keenly awaited showdown on President George W. Bush's most controversial candidates for the federal courts was set to start in earnest on Wednesday as the Senate begins debate on two of his nominees.
The clash follows the breakdown of compromise talks between Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, and Harry Reid, the Democratic leader. While a group of bipartisan moderates continued to search for an agreement, Mr Frist said he intended to begin consideration of two judges Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen.
Aides to Mr Frist said they expected prolonged debate about the nominees as well as the Senate rules used for their consideration, and proposals to change them.
The first votes on the matter might not be taken until early next week, the aides said.
Democrats used the so-called filibuster to block votes on the two nominees in the last session of Congress. Mr Bush renominated them early in his second term and Republican leaders have threatened to change the chamber's rules to prevent that procedure from being used again.
“The goal is a very simple principle,” Mr Frist said on Tuesday. “Each of these nominees …deserves a fair up-or-down vote.” The filibuster allows just 40 senators to block a vote being taken.
Mr Frist and others charge that Democrats have misused the procedure, denying the Senate its constitutional role of “advise and consent” on presidential appointments.
Under the scenario Mr Frist is threatening to pursue, a simple majority of the Senate's 100 members would change that rule, eliminating the filibuster for judicial nominees.
While Republicans hold 55 seats in the chamber, at least three have said they do not want to vote for the rules change and several remain undecided.
Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska, said he had not yet made up his mind, and lamented that Republican and Democratic leaders were being driven byactivists within their own parties.
“Both Frist and Reid are in difficult spots,” Mr Hagel said.
Amid continued uncertainty about the outcome of a vote on the rules change, Democrats sought to appeal to Republicans by invoking the Senate's special rules and tradition.
Joseph Lieberman called the filibuster “one of the last best enablers of bipartisanship and moderation” and Barack Obama said its elimination would destroy “the fabric of this institution”.
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