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The new Senate Judiciary Committee chairman favors more negotiations with Democrats over the so-called "nuclear option" Republicans could use to push President Bush's judicial nominees through Democratic filibusters.
"I'm trying to set the stage to get the job done without going to the nuclear option," Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, said in a wide-ranging interview Friday with The Washington Times.
He was asked if he would support the "nuclear option" -- changing Senate rules so that executive nominees can't be filibustered -- if negotiations fail.
"I'm not going to jump off that bridge until I come to it, and I hope I don't come to it," said Mr. Specter, sitting in his office on the first floor of the Capitol.
Backers of the option -- termed "nuclear" because of its potential fallout in the Senate -- say they have the 51 votes necessary to enact it and say it could be used at any moment. Some conservatives have complained for more than a year that the option hasn't already been employed to dislodge the 10 filibustered Bush nominees.
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