Pat,

Pick up the new copy of Vanity Fair. It has an excellant article on the judges the democrats just fillibustered. It gives all sorts of background on why these judges were extreme to democrats and why the democrats had to stop them.

I don't have it in front of me anymore because I passed it along to a feminist friend of mine, but one of them had a background of ALWAYS ruling in favor of corporations (a review of her rulings and writings did not reveal a single ruling favorable towards people) and another one was quoted as saying a woman seeking abortion should have to express contrition for the abortions of other women as well.

In all truthfulness, would you expect Republicans to allow a vote on people you consider radical, such as Maxine Waters or Ted Kennedy, if circumstances were reversed?

(Add oddly, several years ago when Orrin Hatch and the Republicans were in the minority, he praised the tool of fillibusters in blocking judges, whereas now he has become openly hostile to this practice and says it should now be changed).