By Keith Perine, CQ Staff

The Senate is nearing the end of the 109th Congress much the same way it began: in a partisan confrontation over a judicial nomination. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., filed a petition Dec. 6 to invoke cloture, or limit debate, on the nomination of Kent A. Jordan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Unless Frist strikes a deal with Democrats, the Senate is scheduled to vote on the cloture motion Friday morning.

If at least 60 senators vote to cut off debate, there will then be a maximum of 30 hours of post-cloture debate before a confirmation vote on Jordan. If history is a guide, either Frist or the Democrats will back down rather than keep the Senate in session into the weekend. But the impasse, however temporary it might be, demonstrates that tension between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of judges is very much alive.

Senate GOP leaders would like to arrange confirmation votes not only for Jordan, but for the 13 district court nominees pending on the Senate calendar. Democrats are resisting -- but for procedural, rather than ideological, reasons. They have been chafing at the pace at which Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has been putting nominees through the panel. The committee reported out all the pending nominees, including Jordan, in late September. "For weeks and weeks and weeks I suggested we sit down and work something out," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and soon to be chairman. "They basically told me 'the hell with you, we run this place,' so let them run it."

Democrats are not the only ones blocking action on judicial nominees. Kansas Republican Sam Brownback has a hold on one of the 13 nominees, Janet T. Neff, who was nominated for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. Neff has sparked opposition because she attended a lesbian couple's commitment ceremony. Brownback said Thursday that he does not intend to lift his hold.