Senior aides to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) reached out to conservative leaders Tuesday afternoon to explain the decision to consider President Bush’s embattled judicial nominees next week instead of this week, as many conservatives had hoped and expected.
Eric Ueland, Frist’s chief of staff, and Bill Wichterman, a senior Frist aide who handles outreach to outside groups, held a conference call with about 30 conservative activist leaders to tell them that the majority leader has moved slowly and deliberately in an effort to put Republicans in a strong position heading into a showdown with Democrats, according to participants.
The call was considered sensitive enough that Frist’s staff used a scrambling device to prevent it from being recorded by participants.
Conservatives were told that Frist has held off on triggering a procedural tactic that would shield judicial nominees from filibusters to give the GOP leadership more time to explore a possible compromise with Democrats and to strengthen the support of Republican senators for the controversial move, known as the nuclear or constitutional option.......MORE......
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/051205/frist.html
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