[quote]`Frist-Reid` talks touch on 'nuclear option,' other issues

By Geoff Earle

Amid increasingly hostile rhetoric on both sides of the aisle, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (`R-Tenn`.) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (`D-Nev`.) have begun a series of quiet conversations to discuss ways of resolving Senate disputes, The Hill has learned.

Senate sources say these conversations have dealt even with such intractable issues as to whether Frist will employ the `so-called` “nuclear option” to force an end to Democratic filibusters of President Bush’s judicial nominees.

Some sources speculate that the conversations could signal a softening of the GOP’s `hard-line` position on the judicial standoff — even as senators of both parties have vowed they won’t back down.
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/021705/nuclear.html[/quote]