ESTRADA  (CONT)

But the Democrats will not win this argument if they just focus their opposition on individual nominees. The point of filibusters should be to seek a solution involving consultation across party lines. The goal would be moderate judges that both sides could agree on or, failing that, balanced slates of judges who could guard the country against a judiciary utterly dominated by one party.

Orrin Hatch, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is frustrated by what the Democrats are doing. "The system's going to be irreparably damaged if we allow this to go on," he said recently. A fair point, except that the system was damaged long ago, and the solution isn't to ram through Republican nominees. It's to seek compromise, balance and moderation. Then someone like Miguel Estrada might get though without any fighting at all.

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