The 30-hour senate session is still underway. On one hand, the Republicans have a point :

“We hold this extraordinary session for truly extraordinary reasons,” said senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican. He accused Democrats of unprecedented obstructionism in confirming judicial nominees.

senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, described the debate as “a colossal waste of time.”

Daschle argued that the 30 hours could be better spent discussing the estimated 3 million Americans who have lost their jobs since Bush took office nearly three years ago.

The senate debate was not expected to change the status of any stalled nominee unless Democrats fell asleep and failed to oppose possible procedural bids to confirm without objection.

Daschle promised that would not happen, saying he would have at least two members of his party on the floor at all times.

Frist argued that never before have judicial nominees backed by a majority been blocked with a procedural hurdle known as a filibuster, and wants a rule change to stop it.

Y’see, Frist is technically correct when he talks about the unprecedented nature of the senate filibusters. But the real reason isn’t because the Republicans have been playing nice all along. It’s because they spent the last ten years using a different procedural trick to block judges.

The “blue slip” trick was described at length a few weeks ago by Kevin Drum :

This was the default “Senatorial courtesy” tradition followed by both parties regardless of who was president. If both senators from the judge’s home state “blue slipped” a nominee, he was out.

As Kevin pointed out in his timeline, this is the way it worked until 1994, when Republicans took control of Congress. At that point, the rule was changed so that only one “blue slip” was needed to block a nomination. Once the Republicans stole regained the White House, the rule was changed back to two slips. (“We can’t let Democrats take advantage of the same trick we’ve been using!”) When Sen. Jim Jeffords defected the GOP and the Democrats were controlling the senate, they changed the rule back to one slip. And then, after the Republicans took back the senate by questioning the patriotism of anyone who doesn’t believe the President’s bullshit, the rule was again changed to two slips.

In short, the Republicans have been going back and forth changing an obscure procedural rule to make it harder for Democrats to block ultra-conservative judges, but using it when they wanted to block liberal judges. And based on their track record (from the article quoted above), they’ve been pretty successful at it :

“They (Democrats) are treating a president in a ridiculous, unconstitutional fashion,” said senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican.

Democrats disagree, saying they are exercising their right under the U.S. Constitution’s “advise and consent” clause, and noted they had helped confirm 168 of Bush’s judicial nominees.

They also pointed out that Republicans blocked 63 of former senate President Bill Clinton’s nominees, denying many of them even a confirmation hearing while in the majority.

“The bottom line is very simple,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat. He said when the American public looks at these figures, “They will say, ‘Gee, you are right.”‘

senate staffers added to what Democrats called the carnival-like atmosphere, printing up shirts that read: “We confirmed 98 percent of Bush’s judges, and all we got were these lousy T-shirts.”

Jesus. I don’t know what’s worse, Orrin Hatch’s understanding of the constitution (Seriously, dude. You need to look up the word “unconstitutional” before you go throwing it around) or the sense of humor of the senate senate staffers. “…and all I got was this lousy t-shirt”??? C’mon guys. We’ll never regain control of Congress with shitty jokes like that.