Reid Warns Bush On Court Nominees
Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) warned the White House of another confrontation over judicial nominations yesterday, vowing that Democrats "are not going to cut and run" from a new fight over the 10 nominees blocked during President Bush's first term and resubmitted by the president.
Reid used some of his strongest rhetoric to date to challenge the White House on an issue that produced bitter divisions during Bush's first term. "If they bring back the same judges, we're going to do the same thing," Reid told reporters, accusing the president and Republicans of manufacturing a phony issue by charging the Democrats with being obstructionists. He said the Senate approved 204 of Bush's judicial nominees during his first term while blocking 10.
 
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Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has threatened to invoke a rules change in the Senate that would prohibit a filibuster of judicial nominees, a move that has been called the "nuclear option" because of its potential to shatter any remaining bipartisan comity in the Senate. Reid all but dared Frist to try.
"They can threaten the nuclear option," he said. "If they feel that's great for the institution and the country, let them do it." Noting that the only complaint he has heard from fellow Democrats is that not enough of Bush's judicial nominees were blocked in the past four years, Reid said he is prepared "to go behind the pool hall and see who wins this one."
Kerry Shifts Funds To Senate Account
Sen. John F. Kerry transferred $4 million left over from his unsuccessful presidential campaign to his Senate election committee, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The transfer left Kerry at the end of last year with $9.8 million of the $254.2 million he raised during the Democratic primaries in the first half of 2004. He also had $5.2 million in his legal and accounting fund, and $811,104 left over from the general election campaign, which was financed with $75 million in federal funds.
Kerry, a four-term senator from Massachusetts, will be up for reelection in 2008. He said this week he has not decided whether he will seek another term. He did not rule out another run for the presidency that year.
Judge Rescinds Rule On Gray Wolves
A federal judge ruled that the Bush administration violated the Endangered Species Act when it relaxed protections on many of the nation's gray wolves. The decision by U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones in Portland, Ore., rescinds a rule change that allows ranchers to shoot wolves on sight if they are attacking livestock, said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group.
Ethics Panel Member May Get Chairmanship
Rep. Richard Hastings (Wash.), the second-ranking Republican on the House ethics committee, is under strong consideration to become chairman as Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) works to recast a panel roiled by controversy for twice issuing reports last year rebuking Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) , Republican officials said.
Hastings would succeed Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), whose tenure as chairman is up.
The panel's actions regarding DeLay irritated several members of the GOP rank and file, who voiced criticism of Hefley at the time.
One official said Hastert intends to appoint other new members in addition to a new chairman. The committee is made up of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats.
-- Compiled from reports
by staff writer Dan Balz
and news services
