Demagogue

It is stuff like this that makes the Right hate Arlen Specter

Speaking of the impasse over judges, Specter said that "if you trace it back historically, both parties are at fault." A Democratic-controlled Senate held up many of President Ronald Reagan's nominees, he said, and a GOP-controlled Senate used stalling tactics to block many of President Bill Clinton's nominees. "We exacerbated the problem," Specter said.

True Dat! (as they say)

Anyway, you have to appreciate the fact that the Democrats have managed to successfully frame the issue to the extent that they now have the Republican head of the Judiciary Committee using their preferred language

More recently, he said, Democrats used filibusters and Bush made interim appointments of federal judges during congressional recesses, "which is a little unheard-of when the Senate has made a rejection of nominees. So each side ratcheted it up, ratcheted it up, ratcheted it up, until you have a situation today where . . . no one wants to back down and no one wants to lose face."

As I wrote last week, I don't buy the idea that Bush's nominees were "rejected" but it is nice to see the Democrats win a spin war once in a while.