WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans are closer than ever to pushing the so-called nuclear button to end filibustering on the president's judicial nominations, according to Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.

DeMint said Wednesday that Senate Democrats were leaving Republicans no choice but to change Senate rules. The controversial measure would force Senate-floor votes by majority rule on judicial nominations by barring filibusters to stall or even kill them.

If the GOP goes ahead with its strategy, Democrats have threatened to retaliate by tying up all Senate business.

"We may have no choice but to make the rules consistent with what our responsibilities are," DeMint said, referring to the Constitution's call for senators to give the president advice and consent on judicial nominations. And Democratic resistance is preventing him and colleagues from giving their stamps of approval, he said.

DeMint said filibusters were holding up floor votes to approve judicial candidates that a majority of senators support.

Some Democrats have been unwilling to confirm about 10 of the more than 200 judges Bush has nominated and the Senate has approved. The question could come to a head today when the Senate's Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on two previously blocked nominees: Priscilla R. Owen, a Texas Supreme Court justice, and Janice Rodgers Brown, an associate justice on the California Supreme Court.

DeMint participated in a news conference Wednesday with six other freshman Republican senators who also spoke about what they called Democratic stall tactics. They have written both Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R.-Tenn., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., calling for an end to the filibusters if necessary.

Frist raised controversy last week when he said he would appear on a broadcast of a conservative Christian group that said the filibusters were tantamount to blocking devoutly Christian judges.