the judicial battle in the Senate may now boil over as top Republicans believe the Schiavo case proved a need for the confirmation of conservative judges, while Democrats feel it displayed why they have resisted 10 nominations so far
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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-assess1apr01,1,5494835.story?coll=la-headlines-politics&ctrack=1&cset=trueNEWS ANALYSIS
Anger Likely to Shift to Judiciary
Conservative criticism of court rulings in the case indicates that the war by the GOP and Democrats over nominations is likely to escalate.
By Ronald Brownstein
Times Staff Writer
April 1, 2005
WASHINGTON — Conservative lawmakers' denunciations of the courts on Thursday signaled that Terri Schiavo's death was likely to escalate the war between the parties over President Bush's judicial nominations.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) — two leading advocates of congressional intervention in the case — criticized the state and federal courts involved following the death of the Florida woman.
"This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change," DeLay said. "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today," he said, referring to the judges.
Santorum called repeated decisions by courts that blocked efforts to keep Schiavo alive "unconscionable."
Her death may also intensify conservatives' demands that Senate Republicans rewrite the chamber's rules to eliminate the Democratic filibusters that have blocked confirmation of some of Bush's federal judicial nominees. Critics call that the "nuclear option."
The Schiavo case "will animate and bring more emotion into the view held by many conservatives already that the courts are rewriting the Constitution to suit their own value system," said Gary Bauer, a social conservative activist. "The case provided an additional spur, if they needed any, to move ahead" with prohibiting filibusters for judicial nominees.
Yet Democrats and their allies believe Schiavo's death simultaneously weakens the GOP hand in that dispute. Democrats are preparing to link the Republican move against filibusters with Washington's last-minute effort to require additional judicial review in the Schiavo case — a step polls showed was opposed by a large majority of Americans.
Rewriting Senate rules "would be yet another demonstration of the fact that if Republicans don't like the rules, they are prepared to change the rules," said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).<snip>