The Next Filibuster: I'm just starting to read up on Janice Rogers Brown, the latest Bush judicial nominee to meet with some strong degree of opposition. Eugene has a fine post on People for the American Way's rhetorical bombast about a Brown decision. He notes that PFAW calls one of her decisions "very disturbing" when it actually is fairly mainstream. (Read for yourself: her dissent starts on page 94 of the pdf file.)

NPR had a brief bit on Brown this week, which is when I really started to pay attention to what the major media were saying about her. The NPR reporter excerpted some bits of her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, noting that, when pressed to defend some of her opinions, Brown sounded "confused." In fact, she didn't, in my opinion. The reporter gave only slender set-up before playing a quick clip, but in it she quite confidently replied to a question from Arlen Spector that she disagreed with him. Thus, I'm still confused about the characterization of her as "confused."

As far as the politics go, we've been through the song and dance about whether this is a poor strategy for the Dems, so I won't revisit that, except to say that I think it's lacking in foresight and good judgement. The other party always gets a turn to play the advise and consent role, and upping the stakes as the Dems are will come back to bite them.