By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republicans surprised Democrats on Thursday by deciding to extend their around-the-clock debate on blocked judicial nominees by another nine hours, saying they have enjoyed an outpouring of support.
Working in rotating shifts, lawmakers began what was to be a 30-hour talk-a-thon at 6 p.m. EST on Wednesday and were to finish at midnight on Thursday.
But six hours before it was to wrap up, Republicans announced they would keep going until mid-morning on Friday, which would make it the longest nonstop debate in the Senate in 15 years.
The debate will finally come to an end just as Democrats are expected to use procedural means to block two more of President Bush's conservative judicial nominees, raising the total number to six.
"We are going to keep on talking to educate the American people about what's going on here," said Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, a member of the Republican leadership.
Republicans hold the Senate majority with 51 seats, but 60 votes are needed in the 100-member chamber to end delaying tactics known as filibusters and move to a confirmation vote.
Santorum said his office had been swamped with telephone calls from members of the public supporting the Republican effort and saying, "Go three weeks, not 30 hours."
A Democratic aide said, "I think they must be raising money from this," and just decided to keep going.
As the Senate majority, Republicans decided to hold the debate on judicial nominees following criticism from conservative activists that they were not doing enough to take on Democrats. But Democrats figured they too could use it to score points with their political base.
JUDICIAL NOMINEES
Republicans argue Democrats are blocking judicial nominees with unconstitutional and unprecedented obstructionism.
Democrats say they are merely exercising their right of "advise and consent" to prevent Bush from lining the courts with "right-wing ideologues."
James Thurber of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies said he believes both sides hurt themselves as well as the Senate with the debate, explaining the public sees "them all as too partisan."
Thurber said he believes the public sides more with Democrats on at least one point -- that time spent on the debate could have been better used on such matters as health care, education and the economy.
Democrats have joined Republicans in confirming 168 of Bush's other judicial nominees, dropping the bench's vacancy rate to below 5 percent, its lowest level in more than a decade.
Sheldon Goldman, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said Republicans have been "extremely successful" in confirming Bush's nominees. "But what Republicans would love Democrats to do is to roll over and play dead so they can confirm all of them."
With Republicans deciding to stay on the Senate floor past midnight on Thursday, Democrats arranged to be there, too, to make their case and guard against possible procedural moves to confirm stalled nominees without objection.
Democrats said they have the votes to sustain filibusters against two more nominees on Friday, Janice Rogers Brown and Carolyn Kuhl, both of California.
Bush appeared with Kuhl, Brown and one of the already blocked nominees, Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, at the White House on Thursday and urged the Senate to give them a confirmation vote.
