That’s the title of my new Confirmation Tales post, which begins:

In 2003 and 2004, Senate Democrats repeatedly wielded the filibuster weapon that they had initiated against D.C. Circuit nominee Miguel Estrada. In the short term, their expanded filibuster campaign was a great success. But the 2004 elections would invite a different verdict.

Among the ten Bush appellate nominees whom Senate Democrats filibustered was D.C. Circuit nominee Janice Rogers Brown:

As with Estrada, Democrats targeted Brown because they feared that Bush might appoint her to the Supreme Court. Indeed, when a Supreme Court vacancy did open up in 2005, a senator by the name of Joe Biden, who would later claim credit for appointing the first African American woman to the Supreme Court, threatened a filibuster if Bush tried to make Brown the first African American woman on the Supreme Court.

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