Plainly, these lawmakers are not interested in an even-handed application of the rules. They are merely manipulating the verbiage of principle to partisan advantage. Such unprecedented shenanigans politicize the judiciary — contrary to the very purpose of life appointments, which is to insulate federal judges from politics. Americans shouldn't tolerate this hypocrisy.

With these confirmations, there are only 26 vacant seats in the entire federal judiciary, which is the lowest level since the Reagan Administration. Senate Republicans more than doubled circuit court vacancies and raised overall federal court vacancies to more than 100 from 1995 through early 2001. Vacancies have been greatly reduced with Democratic cooperation during the last four years. Vacancies have been cut by more than 75 percent and judicial emergency vacancies have been cut by more than 60 percent from what they were.

A Senate minority composed of Democrats is obstructing the judicial confirmation process by waging unprecedented filibusters against some of the President's most important nominees -- those to the Federal courts of appeals. Six of the President's appeals court nominees who have been favorably reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee have been denied up-or-down votes. Each has enjoyed the support of a bipartisan majority of Senators and would be confirmed if given a vote.

Home-State Democratic Senators have also succeeded in delaying confirmation hearings on judicial nominees. In this Presidency, more appeals court nominees have had to wait over a year for a confirmation hearing than in the last 50 years combined.

He was the last of 25 judicial nominees the Senate voted on as part of an agreement struck by Bush and Senate Democrats in May. The deal guaranteed the Senate would vote on 25 mainly uncontroversial nominees if the president agreed to stop using recess appointments to install his most contentious nominees on federal appeals courts while Congress is out of town.

The others were confirmed with ease before Congress' July 4 recess.

Question: How many judicial nominees have been confirmed by the Senate?

Answer: Since July, 2001, despite the fact that the Senate majority has shifted twice, a total of 171 judicial nominations have already been confirmed, including 29 circuit court appointments. One hundred judges were confirmed in the 17 months of the Democratic Senate majority. The Senate has only blocked 3.4 percent of President Bush's judicial nominees. This is compared to the Senate, under Republican control, blocking 20 percent of President Clinton's judicial nominees.(Source : Sen. Leahy, (D-VT))

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Question: How does this compare to previous administrations?

Answer: In the year following the Democrats' regaining control of the Senate, the Senate confirmed more judges than were confirmed during the first year of the first Bush Administration and the first year of the Clinton Administration combined. In fact, more nominees were confirmed under the Democratic Senate in 2001-2002 than were confirmed under Republican control in all of 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, or 2000. (Source: People For The American Way)