New York

I WENT TO A DEBATE yesterday at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square where the people you most wanted to hear from weren’t on the program. The subject was the vexed one of the nomination and confirmation of judges, and Boyden Gray and Victoria Toensing, both lawyers in private practice in Washington, argued from a pro-Bush, Republican perspective. Nan Aron of the Alliance for Justice and Betsy Cavendish of NARAL Pro-Choice America from the point of view of the Democratic minority in the Senate.

As everyone knows, Senate Democrats have raised the ante in the judges’ wars by filibustering nominees to the appeals courts. No Senate minority had ever done that, and the number of Bush circuit nominees blocked by Democratic filibustering is now in double digits, at 10. The Democrats have demonstrated that they can filibuster any nominee (including, in a second Bush term, a Supreme Court nominee) any time they like. They have effectively imposed a supermajority requirement on the confirmation of judges, since 60 votes are needed to break a filibuster and allow an up-or-down vote.