Novak on Democratic proposal to end filibuster fight: "like going to a concentration camp and picking out which people go to the death chamber"

CNN host and syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak compared an offer by Senate Democrats to avert a ban on the use of judicial filibusters with "going to a concentration camp and picking out which people go to the death chamber." Novak was referring to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid 's(D-NV) proposal on May 12 by to confirm some, but not all, of President Bush's blocked judicial nominees in return for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) agreeing not to resort to the "nuclear option" to ban judicial filibusters.

On the May 14 edition of CNN's The Capital Gang, Novak responded to a question from panelist Al Hunt:

HUNT: Bob, why would Senator Frist refuse an offer [by Reid] to break the deadlock?

NOVAK: Because the whole system is that you're not going to have -- like going to a concentration camp and picking out which people go to the death chamber. You're not going to let the Democrats do that, say we're going to -- we're going to confirm this person, we're not going to confirm the other person. They're going to -- they're going to say that this is not the way we're going to do it. They've had all kinds of different offers of that kind.

Posted to the web on Monday, May 16, 2005 at 11:52 AM ET