As predicted, Senate Republicans filibustered the nomination of Georgetown Law professor Cornelia "Nina" Pillard to the D.C. Circuit Tuesday, setting up yet one more data point for reform-minded Democrats, and causing Republicans to get cocky.



Senator Richard J. Durbin, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, warned Republicans that they were pushing the Senate dangerously close to a tipping point. “There reaches a point where we can’t allow this type of injustice to occur,” he said, all but threatening that Democrats would be forced to change the rules. “It’s not fair to these nominees,” he added, “to be given the back of the hand by a Republican filibuster on the floor of the United States Senate.” Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who is a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, dared Democrats to change the rules, saying it would come back to haunt them if they lost the majority. “Go ahead,” Mr. Grassley said. “There are a lot more Scalias and Thomases that we’d love to put on the bench,” referring to Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court.

“We had a lot of Republicans who said at that time there should only be a filibuster in the most extraordinary circumstances,” said Leahy. Then, without warning, he smacked the podium he was speaking behind. Thwack. “Each one of those Republicans who said that has filibustered on this! Their credibility is shredded.”

Democrats are increasingly likely to take Grassley up on that dare. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, who has been extremely cautious about rules reform to date, is sounding fed up : "I think we're at a point where there will have to be a rules change," he told reporters after Tuesday's vote. Some other old timers might be getting there, along with Leahy because they might remember the last crisis in 2005, when Republicans agreed that nominees should only be blocked under "extraordinary circumstances." This is what has Leahy particularly worked up (Slight exaggeration: Susan Collins was in the Gang of 14 in 2005, and she voted to allow Pillard's nomination to go forward Tuesday.) Leahy is talking about John McCain and Lindsey Graham, both of whom voted to block Pillard, and both of whom agreed in 2005 to only obstruct in "extraordinary circumstances." They apparently are now trying to argue that filling three vacancies on the D.C. Circuit is extraordinary, something even avowed reform foe Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) would have to agree is total bullshit. That might be enough to finally turn some of the most stalwart filibuster reform holdouts.