In a surprising move, the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected President Obama’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division on a 52-47 vote today.

The nominee, Debo Adegbile, had stirred up a lot of controversy because during his tenure as president of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, NAACP lawyers portrayed convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal as the victim of racial injustice. So it’s not shocking that enough Democrats joined Republicans to kill Adegbile’s nomination today. But what has left Senate insiders scratching their heads is Harry Reid’s decision to bring the nomination to the floor when he didn’t have the votes to confirm Adegbile.