WASHINGTON – Republicans took a step yesterday toward a Senate confrontation over filibusters of President Bush’s judicial nominees by advancing two of the White House’s favored candidates for prospective votes.

By sending Texas judge Priscilla Owen and California judge Janice Rogers Brown to the full Senate for confirmation, GOP senators now have two of the candidates they want to use to challenge the Democrats’ threat to filibuster U.S. Appeals Courts candidates.

“We have now the vehicle. We have two qualified women. They have met every test,” said Senator Hutchison, a Republican of Texas.

Judge Owen is nominated for a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, and Judge Brown is nominated to serve on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia. Democrats blocked them from lifetime seats on the nation’s second highest courts during Mr. Bush’s first term, but they were renominated by the president after he won a second term in November.

Democrats – who want to block the two women again – agree that a confrontation with the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, over whether to ban judicial filibusters is imminent following the strictly partisan votes in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Republicans are “doing this as a prelude to setting up the greatest constitutional crisis that the Senate has faced,” said Senator Schumer.

Mr. Frist, a Republican of Tennessee, has threatened to ban judicial filibusters to stop Democrats from blocking nominees, which Republicans say is against Senate tradition. It requires 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster, but only 51 votes to ultimately ban the procedure.

The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, has vowed to slow or halt Senate action on much routine business if the GOP bans judicial filibusters and forces up-or-down votes in which nominees could be confirmed by a bare majority.

Mr. Frist has been working to secure the 50 votes he needs from his 55-member Republican caucus to make the rules change. At least a half-dozen Republicans have not yet committed to his plan.

GOP Conference chairman Rick Santorum, a Republican of Pennsylvania, denied reports that he has urged Mr. Frist to go slow on the rules change, and he said he is still behind getting all of Mr. Bush’s judicial nominees confirmed. “As far as the timing, that’s up to the majority leader,” he said.

Another of Mr. Bush’s 10 blocked nominees, Idaho lawyer William Myers, already has been approved by the Judiciary Committee. But conservatives would rather see the final showdown come over Judge Brown, Judge Owen, or U.S. Appeals Judge William Pryor, who was given a temporary appointment by Mr. Bush after he was blocked by Democrats.

The Judiciary Committee is expected to advance Judge Pryor’s nomination next week. Conservatives during the last Congress accused Democrats of being anti-minority for blocking Judge Brown, who is black; anti-women for blocking Judge Owen, and anti-Catholic for blocking Judge Pryor.

Activists plan a similar tactic this year, with Mr. Frist planning to deliver a taped message to Christian conservatives on April 24, saying Democrats are “against people of faith” for blocking Mr. Bush’s nominees.

Democrats have condemned those attacks, saying they will block the nominees because they are too conservative, calling them judicial activists who should be stopped before they get lifetime appointments.

Private Republican polling shows scant support for a plan to stop minority Democrats from blocking judicial nominees, officials said yesterday, as two of Mr. Bush’s most controversial appointments advanced toward a possible Senate confrontation.

These officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a recent survey taken for Senate Republicans showed 37% support for the GOP plan to deny Democrats the ability to filibuster judicial nominees, while 51% oppose.