TV campaign to fight Senate rules change

WASHINGTON, March 29 (UPI) -- People for the American Way Foundation, founded by Hollywood producer Norman Lear, pledged $5 million Tuesday to a campaign to save the Senate filibuster.

The liberal group, which has taken a lead in blocking the Senate from voting on some Bush judicial nominees, said in a release the campaign would be built around the idea "America works best when no one party holds absolute power."

Lear, who created such iconic U.S. television programs as "Maude" and "All in the Family," developed the ad to appeal to "common-sense" Republicans in conjunction with Democrats Carter Eskew and Joe Lockhart, a former Clinton White House spokesman, the group said.

The ads will run on television and in print in 18 states with Republican senators and are intended to help Democrats beat back an effort by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to change Senate procedure to make it harder to block judicial nominees from getting a vote of the full Senate.