Judicial vacancies leave G.O.P. with empty feeling

Some Republicans are upset that the White House has nominated only 25 people to fill the 47 vacancies now on the federal judiciary. Not to worry. If history is any guide, President Bush can nominate as many people as he wants, but most of them will not don the black robes anytime soon.

Yaaay!

As we head into the administration's final 18 months, it appears that, with the Democrats running the Senate, Bush, who has put 278 district and appeals court judges on the bench, has virtually no chance of besting Bill Clinton's370 appointments to those courts -- about 43 percent of the total 853 judges.

Yaaay!

...the late senator Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) and Senate GOP leaders refined the rule to block "judicial appointments in the last year of a presidency unless (they are) consensus nominees." That means Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Leahy and Arlen Specter (Pa.), the committee's ranking Republican, all have to approve the nomination.

Hmmm. Sounds as though conservatives should stop giving Bush a hard time about these nominations. He's already close to his likely maximum.

Yaaay!

Then there's that whole Supreme Court thing. Booooo.