I expect the New York Times to defend the obstruction of conservative judicial nominees, but I would hope the paper would get its facts straight. In today’s editorial, “The Brawl Over Judges,” the NYT charges Senator Hatch “broke with tradition” in having the committee vote to send a controversial judicial nominee (James Leon Holmes) to the floor without a recommendation. This is hardly unprecedented. For example, the Judiciary Committee did the same with Daniel Manion’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 1986. (I won’t even touch the Times’ claim that Democrats are blocking Estrada because of his “unwillingness to answer questions.”)