[JURIST] Senate leaders Bill Frist [R-Tenn.] and Harry Reid [D-Nev.] have been meeting privately in hopes of reaching a deal in which Senate Democrats would allow confirmation of at least two of President Bush's seven disputed nominees for appellate judgeships, but only as part of a larger agreement in which Republicans would end their attack on judicial filibusters. Democrats insist that in exchange for their cooperation regarding the disputed nominees, the so-called "nuclear option" of ending judicial filibusters must be taken out of consideration by Republicans. In a press release Monday Frist criticized what he called a Democratic "shutdown" of the Senate over the judicial nominee flap. Reid's official website contains releases from his perspective. AP has more.