Yesterday I talked about the Democrats seeking a compromise in order to save face from the nuclear option.

Today the answer was given.  Senator Bill Frist held a press conference on the Senate floor and said no to any deal that wouldn't place all of the nominees on the Senate floor and reserve the right for future nominees to get the same vote.  In other words, there isn't a compromise:

But Frist, in a rare news conference conducted on the Senate floor, said he would not accept any deal that keeps his Republican majority from confirming judicial nominees that have been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

``My goal is to have fair up and down votes. Are we going to shift from that principle? The answer to that is no,'' Frist said. 

That means he and Reid are still at deadlock, because Democrats have said they would not accept any deals that would permanently ban them from blocking Bush's nominees to the Supreme Court or the federal appellate courts, the top two tiers of the judicial system.

Well, I'm mildly surprised.  I expected Frist to cave.  In fact, the question in my mind was how much he was going to get for it.

But maybe this had something to do with it:

Karl Rove rejected a compromise with Senate Democrats Monday on long-stalled nominations for the federal judiciary and strongly defended President Bush's choice of John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations.

In an hour-long interview with USA TODAY and Gannett News Service reporters and editors, Rove, deputy White House chief of staff, dismissed suggestions from Democrats that they might drop threats to use filibusters to prevent votes on Bush's judicial nominees if the president would withdraw a few of the most controversial names.

Now I'm not one to go into Rovian-based conspiracies like the moonbats, but is it possible that Rove read the tea leaves and thought Frist was going to blow this, so he decided to handle this himself?  It's possible, and if he did I can't blame him.  Frist was probably going to make the Republicans look impotent.

Either way, it looks like they're finally showing some backbone.

Previous posts:

1. Democrats looking to compromise on nuclear option.
2. Backbone.