Q: What do Nostradamus and Bill Frist have in common?
A: They both keep making phony predictions about the end of the world.
Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has said that if Democrats refuse to stop blocking nominees -- so far, they have blocked 10 of President Bush's most conservative nominees and confirmed 215 of them -- he will ask the Senate
as soon as next week to lower to a simple majority the threshold to end debate on judicial nominees.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 20, 2005
Democrats and their allies launched sharp new attacks yesterday on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist as Capitol Hill braces for a showdown over stalled judicial nominations that could come as soon as next week.
Nashville Tennessean, May 5, 2005
[Frist's] chief of staff, Eric Ueland, said the event will take place in "less than a month," according to several people who attended a closed-door meeting late last week.
The Hill, May 5, 2005
But social conservatives are anticipating from conversations with Frist's staff that the controversial move will take place next week and are predicting a conservative backlash if Senate Republicans delay any longer.
The Hill, May 5, 2005
A conservative lobbyist came away from a separate conversation with Frist's staff convinced that the disaffected Republicans will make their move in "a matter of days."
The Hill, May 5, 2005
Under pressure to act by the White House and social conservatives, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Tuesday he will start calling for up-or-down votes on President Bush's stalled judicial nominees as soon as next week.
McClatchy Newspapers, May 10, 2005