In one of the must-read pieces in Monday's papers, The Washington Post's Helen Dewar and Mike Allen examine the impending battle over the nomination of one or more Supreme Court Justices. In a front page article entitled "GOP Is Ready for Filibuster Battle", they write thusly:

As speculation mounts that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist will step down soon because of thyroid cancer, Senate Republican leaders are preparing for a showdown to keep Democrats from blocking President Bush's judicial nominations, including a replacement for Rehnquist.

Republicans claim that Democrats have abused the filibuster by blocking 10 of the president's 229 judicial nominees in his first term -- although confirmation of Bush nominees exceeds in most cases the first-term experience of presidents dating to Ronald Reagan. Describing the filibusters as intolerable, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has hinted he may resort to an unusual parliamentary maneuver, dubbed the "nuclear option," to thwart such filibusters.

If the GOP majority indeed decides to do this--to throw away more than two hundred years of history--the Democrats will not give them a free pass.

"If they, for whatever reason, decide to do this, it's not only wrong, they will rue the day they did it, because we will do whatever we can do to strike back," Senate Democratic leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) said last week. "I know procedures around here. And I know that there will still be Senate business conducted. But I will, for lack of a better word, screw things up."

That's exactly the type of tough rhetoric the Democrats are looking for in a leader.

One of the key facets of this issue--one that is completely untrue--is the Republican claim that Supreme Court Justices nominations have never before been filibustered. Dewar and Allen explain that's just not true:

In 1968, Republicans filibustered President Lyndon B. Johnson's choice of Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas to be chief justice, but Johnson withdrew the nomination in the face of Fortas's likely rejection by the Senate.

Overall, this is a great article and I highly recommend it for reading at this point in the evening.