Since the GOP caucus in both houses of Congress is currently whiter than a Jim Ladd playlist, it ill-behooves them to spend a great deal of time speculating on the motives of Senators opposing Miguel Estrada. It's not only unseemly, it looks desperate, and it convinces none of the people they're trying to sway. A much more reasonable defense for their position is that the filibuster is anti-majoritarian; however, because their own hands are bloody in this matter from the practice of "blue-slipping" Clinton's nominees (a practice that only works if the threat of a filibuster is present), it is not totally surprising that they are hesitant to use that argument.

As I noted yesterday, one way to end this predicament is to compromise: renominate (and confirm) a significant number of Clinton nominees to the appeals courts, in exchange for ending the practice of filibustering judicial nominees. In the meantime, this press release, issued by the notorious consigliere for Clarence Thomas, C.Boyden Gray, makes a pathetic effort to argue that the Democrats are motivated by anti-Latino spite, but instead only shows that the President does, on occasion, nominate people with superlative qualifications. In other words, if you have a nominee who has practicing law for six more years, and has a full decade of experience as a law professor, is not being plugged for the Supreme Court by ideologues within the Administration, plus has done everything else the other nominee has done in his professional career, it is not unreasonable to treat that candidate with greater deference.