WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist offered Democrats a compromise proposal yesterday to avoid his threat to change the Senate rules that have allowed Democrats to block 10 of President Bush's most controversial judicial nominees.

The proposal would allow 100 hours of debate on each judicial nominee on the Senate floor, speed up the process of moving a nominee through committee -- with an expedited timeline developed by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. -- and guarantee that judicial nominees are no longer blocked in committee, as 69 of former President Bill Clinton's nominees were.

But Frist's bottom line remained the same: Every circuit court and Supreme Court nominee must get an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. And that appeared to leave little room for compromise with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who said on the Senate floor that Frist's proposal was "a big, wet kiss to the far right."

Democrats have blocked about a third of Bush's appellate court nominees with a procedural maneuver known as a filibuster, in which senators use their ability for unlimited debate to prevent a nominee from being confirmed. Senate rules require 60 votes to cut off a filibuster, although it's unclear how many votes would be needed to change those rules.

"There's no way we're going to give up our right to extended debate," said Reid, D-Nev., who would not say outright that he rejected the proposal but said he didn't think Democrats could accept it. "This is about checks and balances."

Frist, R-Tenn., said the compromise came down to constitutional principles and courtesy to nominees to the federal bench.

"Whether on the floor or in committee, judicial obstruction is judicial obstruction," said Frist, acknowledging that Republicans blocked judicial nominees by waylaying them in committee. "It's time for judicial obstruction to end no matter which party controls the White House or the Senate."

While cautioning Frist from moving ahead with the rule change, Reid said yesterday that the tone of the 109th Congress might be different than that of the 108th, when Democrats blocked 10 of Bush's nominees.

"I don't think this body is in the mood for a number of filibusters; I just don't think they feel like it," said Reid, who offered his own compromise earlier this week in which he said Democrats would confirm some of Bush's previously blocked nominees if Republicans decided not to go forward with the rule change.

"Test us. Let's see how we can do in the future," Reid said.

But Frist's overture indicated that Republicans are one step closer to voting on the change to Senate rules that would bar Democrats from filibustering judges -- a move that both sides have acknowledged would poison relations within the Senate and slow Senate business. Without a deal, Frist may act after the Senate's week-long recess next week.

The Senate is split among 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and one independent, who opposes the rule change.

More than 10 Republican senators have said they have some level of concern about changing the rules. Three Republicans -- Maine Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, Arizona Sen. John McCain and Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee -- have definitively said they will not support the rule change. If a total of five Republicans voted against the proposal, it would fail. (As president of the Senate, Vice President Dick Cheney could cast a vote in the event of a tie.)

But the vote is likely to pivot on the decisions of a handful of Republican senators who remain undecided, including Specter.