US: President Bush is facing an imminent showdown in the Republican-dominated congress on two issues that could either strengthen his hand in pushing his main domestic reform programme or leave him a lame-duck president.
Tomorrow, a senate committee is scheduled to vote on his controversial nomination of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations.
And any day now the senate Republican leadership is expected to call for a vote on changing the senate rules so that the minority Democrats cannot filibuster Mr Bush's judicial nominees.
The issue of the filibuster has preoccupied the president even on his visit to Europe, where he issued a statement from Tiblisi, Georgia, calling for an up-or-down vote "without delay", for two conservative nominees to the federal appeals court.
These are Justice Priscilla Owen of Texas and Judge Terry Boyle of Virginia, whose names he first put forward four years ago.
Democrats suggested a tactical compromise, offering to an immediate up-or-down vote on another of Mr Bush's 10 outstanding nominations, Justice Thomas Griffith, rather than an end to the filibuster.
Senate majority leader Bill Frist rejected it, saying, "All this obstruction must stop: it is hurting the senate; it is hurting the nominees; it is hurting the American people."
The senate manoeuvres come against a background of strident calls from Christian evangelists and conservative talk radio to vote down the filibuster, which they see today as a liberal tactic to block judges who are anti-abortion.
Former senator George Mitchell joined the fray yesterday with an op-ed article in the New York Times in which he recalled that, in his six years as Democratic majority leader, the Republicans often used the filibuster to achieve their goals.
He claimed that the senate had already approved 95 per cent of Mr Bush's judicial nominations - a higher proportion than in the three previous presidencies.
Mr Bush claimed yesterday, however, that over the course of the past four years, "the blocking of judicial nominees in the senate has escalated to an unprecedented level".
Many observers see the push for confrontation as the culmination of a drive by Mr Bush, strongly backed by vice president Dick Cheney, to strengthen the power of the presidency over congress - and to make sure there is no mechanism in place to obstruct an expected nomination to the supreme court in the coming months.
Attorney general Alberto Gonzales also increased the administration's pressure on the senate, telling reporters that the judicial dispute was one of "fairness".
He singled out Justice Owen for praise, despite writing an opinion when he was a Texas judge in 2000 criticising her for "an unconscionable act of judicial activism" in seeking to restrict a minor's right to an abortion.
The Bolton nomination, stalled because three of the 10 Republicans on the foreign relations committee voiced doubts about his suitability, has been further muddied by revelations that he was such a "loose cannon" in the state department, where he was in charge of non-proliferation, that former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage ordered that Mr Bolton be prevented from issuing any statements without clearing them with him first.
Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to then secretary of state Colin Powell, said Mr Armitage was furious about a provocative speech Bolton gave on North Korea in July 2003.
Mr Bolton claimed in senate testimony that the speech was approved by the US ambassador to South Korea, but the envoy has denied that.