Senate compromise that will fill two long-standing vacancies on the Federal Appeals Court based in Ohio. How long you ask? The liberal half of this compromise was originally appointed by President Clinton:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/washington/08judges.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
Probably a sensible compromise, but it begs the question why this could not have been done years ago? And it points to a larger problem. The 9 Supremes get the lions share of the headlines, but the vast majority of federal jurisprudence is handled by the lower courts, and they pile up a backlog of cases because judges retire or die and their seat remains vacant for years and years while politics are played in Washington. True believers in both parties routinely pressure the Senate into voting down or fillibustering appointees they believe are dangerous. It used to be only the dangerously ideological or flat-out incompetent got “Borked” or “Carswelled”. Now Republicans block perfectly reasonable Clinton appointees, Democrats block perfectly reasonable Bush appointees and so on and so forth ad infinitum. That needs to stop.
