Senate Confirms Sri Srinivasan for Court Seat WASHINGTON - Frustrations in the Senate over the slow pace of approval for President Obama's second-term cabinet deepened Thursday even as the Senate voted 97 to 0 to confirm Mr. Obama's nominee for a long-vacant seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. That vote to confirm the nominee, Sri Srinivasan, which was added to the calendar at the last minute after Republicans dropped objections that would have delayed it two more weeks, came as Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, took to the Senate floor to denounce Democrats. Mr. McConnell directed most of his anger at Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, accusing him of trying to jam the nomination through and force a rule change that would limit the minority party's ability to block nominations. "What I fear is the majority leader is working his way toward breaking his word to the Senate and to the American people, and blowing up this institution," Mr. McConnell said. "He wants to have no debate," he continued. " "Do what I say when I say it. Sit down, shut up. Or we'll change the rules. We'll break the rules to change the rules." " Both parties were closely watching Mr. Srinivasan's path to confirmation as a test case for other high-profile Obama nominations to come. The court on which he will serve is considered the most important in the country after the Supreme Court and often decides cases involving government regulations and the power of federal agencies. Its judges have become Supreme Court justices. But Thursday's vote resolved only one of several messy confirmation battles that are brewing. With other nominations in the pipeline that Republicans have threatened to delay - including those to head the Labor Department and the Environmental Protection Agency - Democrats are discussing rewriting Senate rules to prevent Republicans from forcing a 60-vote supermajority on cabinet-level nominees, a procedure that before this year had been used just twice in nearly 100 years. But the politics of such a move are dangerous, Democrats concede. The Senate is soon to start considering an immigration bill that will need considerable Republican support to succeed. And Democrats seem, at least for the time being, unwilling to sacrifice immigration overhaul in a fight over the filibuster. "I'm going to do nothing to interfere with immigration," Mr. Reid said Thursday, echoing the sentiment of many of his members that a rules change could not happen until after immigration was dealt with. To that end, Mr. Reid will postpone scheduling votes on the president's more controversial pending nominees. An alternative possibility is that a bipartisan group of senators could try to reach a deal on the filibuster themselves, that way averting a confrontation that would further strain the already distrustful relationship between the two parties. Republicans have threatened to filibuster several Obama appointees. Among them: Gina McCarthy, the president's choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, on the ground that she was not forthcoming in responding to their written questions. They sent her nearly 1,100. The nomination of Thomas E. Perez for labor secretary is in peril because Republicans view his work as head of the Justice Department's civil rights division as too political. They have vowed to block Mr. Obama's pick to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray, because they object on principle to the existence of such a bureau. And nominees to the National Labor Relations Board are meeting similar obstacles. "There may be some that we really have a fight over," said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, saying a drawn-out argument over nominations could do considerable harm to the Senate. "So that's when we have to think this thing through," he added, saying he would support reopening talks with Democrats over changing the rules on filibusters. If it becomes a problem and we get hung up over cabinet nominees, yes, I'd be willing to. There does appear to be one bright spot for the administration: the nomination of Penny Pritzker as commerce secretary. Ms. Pritzker, a Chicago businesswoman who was a top fund-raiser for Mr. Obama, appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday and met little resistance from Republicans. But even a relatively gentle confirmation process for Ms. Pritzker is unlikely to resolve the bigger differences between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans point out that they have approved the majority of Mr. Obama's nominees. But the new lengths to which they have gone to slow down confirmation - including the first-ever filibuster of a defense secretary nominee and requests that nominees respond to hundreds of written questions - have made the process highly contentious. Senator Mary Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, said that after the Senate voted on immigration changes she would support efforts to broker a compromise on the use of the filibuster. "It might be a good time to sit down and talk about what can be done, because it's really just truly shameful," she said. Ms. Landrieu, like Mr. Graham, helped negotiate the 2005 pact that limited the use of filibusters on judicial nominees to all but "extraordinary circumstances." Such an agreement would be welcomed by many Democrats, who despite their anger with Republicans are reluctant to force a rule change that could later be used against them. Mr. Reid is confident that a parliamentary ruling would allow him to limit the use of the filibuster on cabinet-level nominees by obtaining a simple 51-vote majority. Usually a two-thirds vote is required for a rules change. But many Democrats worry that they might someday wish for the protections that Senate rules afford to the minority party. "Amazingly enough, the American people do from time to time change their minds about who they would like to be running the country," Mr. McConnell said. The shoe could be on the other foot. You never know when.