US: As the Senate fight over the filibuster settled into a series of long and bitter speeches in an almost empty chamber yesterday, centrist senators on both sides worked frantically in the corridors outside to find a compromise, writes Conor O'Clery
Last night, drafts of a possible deal to defuse what has been called the "nuclear option" were circulated among the 100 Senate members. Under one proposal, Democrats would allow several judicial nominees they had filibustered before to go to a vote, while Republicans would not press their campaign to abolish the filibuster device, which allows a minority to block presidential nominations.
The move towards a compromise was given some urgency by new evidence that the public's disillusion with Congress is growing. A Wall Street Journal/ NBC News poll yesterday showed that disapproval of Congress's performance is higher than at any time since 1994, the year that Democrats were swept from power.
This time the erosion in congressional approval is greater among Republican voters, with support for Democrats over Republicans rising to 47-40 per cent, a reversal of party standings from November.
A majority of 65-17 per cent of voters polled stated moreover that they felt Congress did not share their priorities; a Time magazine poll showed that two-thirds of Americans were in favour of keeping the filibuster.
The stakes are particularly high for Senate majority leader Bill Frist, who is considered a leading Republican presidential candidate for 2008.
Dr Frist will be perceptibly weakened if he is seen to back down now, but as majority leader he will bear prime responsibility if the Senate business gets stalled by the filibuster crisis. It came to a head on Tuesday when he asked for a vote on one contested nominee, Judge Priscilla Owen of Texas.
Negotiations intensified yesterday afternoon as Democrats hammered Republicans for trying to seize the last lever of power in Washington, and Republicans recited statements dug out of congressional archives showing how some Democrats had called for an end to the filibuster in the past.
Many long-serving Republican senators have expressed deep misgivings about ending a 214-year-old Senate tradition and making the Senate no more than - as Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy put it - an "echo chamber" of a partisan House.
However for many the battle is really about President George Bush's desire that any future nomination for an all-important Supreme Court vacancy should not be blocked.
Democrats and Republicans have been conducting bipartisan compromise negotiations. One proposal suggested that of seven pending Bush nominees, three would definitely receive confirmation votes, including Judge Owen and Judges Janice Brown of California and William Pryor of Alabama - all-important to conservatives. Two nominations, those of Henry Saad of Michigan and William Myers III of Idaho, would be withdrawn.
In public the rhetoric grew more heated yesterday with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid accusing President Bush and Republican senators of trying to "rewrite the constitution and reinvent reality".
Dr Frist said "judicial nominees with support of a majority of United States senators deserve a fair up-or-down vote".