Back then, I wrote many columns on the subject, upholding the notion of filibusters on judicial nominations while advocating reform of the filibuster. I also expressed grave doubts about the use of the nuclear option, noting that it would inevitably provoke a strong and sustained response from the minority, using the many tools available to them in the Senate to bollix up the works and bring the place to a halt that go far beyond Rule XXII.

Is anything different? Actually, some things are. To review the history a bit, as the threats to blow up the Senate's rules reached a crescendo in May 2005, a "Gang of 14" senators, seven from each party, reached a deal that enabled several Bush nominees for Appeals Court positions to get up-or-down votes, excluded a couple of others, and declared that all would support cloture of future judicial nominees through the 109th Congress except under "extraordinary circumstances." The deal held throughout that Congress, but when Barack Obama became president, it was clear early on that the deal was at best moribund -- two Republican members of the Gang of 14, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, joined in a filibuster of an Obama pick for the Seventh Circuit, David Hamilton, without any reference to an "extraordinary circumstances" rationale.

Recently, a superbly qualified Obama choice for the D.C. Circuit, Caitlin Halligan, withdrew from consideration after a second attempt to get her confirmed failed, via another Republican filibuster. In the interim, scores of Obama nominees for District and Appeals Court positions have been delayed for months or years after formal nomination, through holds and other obstructionist mechanisms, most of which are related to the threat of a filibuster. A recent report from the Congressional Research Service by Barry McMillion notes that Obama's judicial nominees have been delayed longer than his four most recent predecessors; he is the only president for whom the average and media waiting time from nomination to confirmation was greater than a half year. (I should add that the delays by the president before nominating judges have been ridiculous.)

At the same time, Republicans have used holds, filibusters, and threats of filibuster against executive nominees, including Obama Cabinet choices and scores of others, at an unprecedented level.

At the beginning of the 113th Congress, Harry Reid struck a deal with Mitch McConnell to alter Senate rules modestly, including expediting confirmation of District Court nominees, heading off a larger change in the filibuster rule championed by many Senate Democrats. Implicit in the deal was that the extraordinary level of obstructionism would be ratcheted down -- the problem was less the rules as they existed and more how GOP leaders had ignored the long-standing norms of Senate conduct.