'Frist filibuster' echoes at Princeton

PRINCETON, N.J., May 2 (UPI) -- The "Frist filibuster" entered its seventh day at Princeton University Monday to protest a Republican plan to limit filibusters in the U.S. Senate.

The GOP plan, threatened by Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a 1974 Princeton alum, would remove the option of filibuster as a way to stop judicial nominations. Republicans have expressed dismay at Democratic filibusters of several of President Bush's nomination for the federal bench.

Princeton's protest in front of a structure the Frist family gave $25 million toward building began last Tuesday. Organizers have permits to continue their "Frist filibuster" until at least Wednesday, the Daily Princetonian reported.

Among the participants so far were Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., who read the same Aesop's Fables selection that his father, Sen. Rush Holt, D-W.Va., read during a 1936 U.S. Senate filibuster against a coal industry regulation bill, the Daily Princetonian said.

Most of the readers have been students, the newspaper said, although some of the Princeton faculty has joined. Some of the reading selections include the Princeton telephone book, poems and Shakespeare.