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You've read about the evil Democrats filibustering every judicial nomination that Bush sends up to the Senate and you're outraged, just OUTRAGED, right?!

Well, in this editorial by Kevin Drum, you can read how the sly Orrin Hatch changed all the rules once the Republicans became the majority party in the Senate in 2000. These rule changes, in fact, just show the Republican party in its true colors...

It's pretty slimy, actually...

Here's the gist of it:

Originally, after Republicans gained control of the Senate in the 1994 elections and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch assumed control of the Judiciary Committee, the rule regarding judicial nominees was this: If a single senator from a nominee's home state objected to (or "blue-slipped") a nomination, it was dead. This rule made it easy for Republicans to obstruct Clinton's nominees.

But in 2001, when a Republican became president, Hatch suddenly reversed course and decided that it should take objections from both home-state senators to block a nominee. That made it harder for Democrats to obstruct George W. Bush's nominees.

In early 2003 Hatch went even further: Senatorial objections were merely advisory, he said. Even if both senators objected to a nomination, it could still go to the floor for a vote.

Finally, a few weeks later, yet another barrier was torn down: Hatch did away with "Rule IV," which states that at least one member of the minority has to agree in order to end discussion about a nomination and move it out of committee.

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