WASHINGTON – Senate Democratic Leader Reid yesterday offered the Democrats’ support for one of President Bush’s judicial nominees, former Senate lawyer, Thomas Griffith, as a goodwill gesture in the confrontation over banning judicial filibusters.

“Let’s take a step away from the precipice,” Mr. Reid said. “Let’s try cooperation, rather than confrontation, which seems to be the hallmark of what we’ve been doing here lately.”

The offer came as Mr. Bush and Senate Republicans renewed their pressure on Democrats to stop blocking some of his judicial nominees, four years to the day that the White House unveiled its first judicial picks.

“Each deserved a simple up-or-down vote by the entire Senate,” Mr. Bush said in a statement, pointing out that two of his first nominees from 2001 – Texas judge Priscilla Owen and North Carolina judge Terrence Boyle – have yet to be approved by the Senate.

Mr. Griffith replaced a third, Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada, who withdrew his nomination for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia after Democrats filibustered his nomination for two years.

Mr. Griffith was the Senate’s general counsel during President Clinton’s impeachment and became Brigham Young University’s general counsel in 2003.

Democrats are hoping Mr. Reid’s offer will help persuade the dozen or so undecided Republicans that they should not support Senate Majority Leader Frist’s call to ban judicial filibusters.

“We know the difference between opposing nominees and blocking nominees. We will oppose bad nominees, but we will only block unacceptable nominees,” Mr. Reid said.

Republicans say all of Mr. Bush’s nominees should get confirmation votes. “Why stop at one?” Mr. Frist’s spokesman Bob Stevenson said. “We should take them all up, including those to be reported out of committee later this week.”

U.S. Appeals Judge William Pryor – who got a recess appointment from Mr. Bush after Democrats blocked his confirmation – and Judge Boyle are expected to get committee votes later this week. But Republicans spent most of the day talking up Judge Owen’s nomination.

Judge Owen is one of seven Bush nominees being filibustered by Democrats, while Judge Boyle was blocked in committee by objections from a former Democratic senator, John Edwards, in retaliation for similar actions by a former GOP senator, Jesse Helms.

Mr. Frist, a Republican of Tennessee, is considering an effort to ban judicial filibusters to stop Democrats from blocking those judges and a Supreme Court nomination if a vacancy becomes open during Mr. Bush’s presidency.

“All judicial nominees deserve an up-or-down vote. It’s a matter of fairness,” Attorney General Gonzales said at a news conference at the Justice Department.