GOP leader warns of Senate reorganization wrangle

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A top Senate Republican leader warned Sunday that the GOP may put roadblocks in the way of the chamber's transition to Democratic control this week unless they get assurances that President Bush's nominees won't be blocked in committee.

Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said the Senate may have "some hard times" reorganizing unless the Democrats offer such assurances.

"We're willing to give them a one-seat majority [on each committee]," Santorum said on the "Fox News Sunday" news program. "What we want in exchange for that is really some protection that government can continue to function here, and that is that executive appointments and nominees will at least have a fair opportunity to be heard on the United States Senate floor."

"That's not guaranteeing passage, but at least the opportunity for them to be voted on," Santorum said.

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The 50 Senate Democrats, with the support of newly independent Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont, are expected to move Tuesday to reorganize the Senate, which would change the makeup of committees, now split evenly, to a one-vote Democratic majority. But the 49 Republicans can block reorganization with a filibuster, which would leave committees with GOP majorities despite the Senate's Democratic control.

"We're willing to be reasonable," Santorum said. "But if that's what the Democrats want to have as the action, then that's what will occur."

Santorum said Republicans are concerned about "rather strident" language about Bush nominees from prospective new Democratic committee chairmen. They are particularly concerned about Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who is expected to head the Judiciary Committee, which will handle Bush's federal court appointments.

"What I'm hearing from Senator Leahy is that if you're a conservative, you're not qualified," Santorum said. "That kind of litmus test is just simply not acceptable."

Leahy, speaking Sunday on CBS' "Face The Nation," rejected the idea that Democrats are planning wholesale obstruction of Bush judicial nominees.

"This idea that there's going to be some kind of confrontation for the sake of confrontation is really foolish," Leahy said. "I will work with the White House. I've talked to them about that."

Leahy said he believes strongly in the Senate's "advise-and-consent" role in selecting judges for lifetime appointments.

"I am not trying to appoint judges," he said. "But the advise-and-consent rule has been there from the time of the beginning of this country ... It's there so that you don't have the federal judiciary lurch either to the left or to the right ideologically and that you have an independent, highly professional federal judiciary."