As expected, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has once again introduced the nomination of Texas judge Priscilla Owen to the full Senate for debate.

Owen has come under repeated fire from critics who assert she is a radical judicial activist who operates more on ideology than the Constitution for decision making.

Her nomination has resulted in a Democratic filibuster in the past and will again unless the Republican majority succeeds in implementing the "nuclear option" to change Senate rules. From the Washington Post yesterday:

A report last month by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service asserted that "the point of a 'nuclear' or 'constitutional' option is to achieve changes in Senate procedure by using means that lie outside the Senate's normal rules of procedure."

Also, some Democrats have advanced evidence that the GOP gambit lacks support from the Senate parliamentarian, the official who typically rules on what is allowable under the chamber's rules and precedents.

Reid told reporters last month that the parliamentarian, Alan S. Frumin, had told him that he opposed the Republicans' plan and that "if they do this, they will have to overrule him."

Frumin, who was appointed by Republican leaders in 2001, has not been granting interviews. But a senior Republican Senate aide confirmed that Frist does not plan to consult Frumin at the time the nuclear option is deployed. "He has nothing to do with this," the aide said. "He's a staffer, and we don't have to ask his opinion."