Filling the judiciary, slowly

Charlie Savage has an update in Sunday's NYT on the status of Obama's nominees for the federal judiciary (see also Jeffrey Toobin's piece in the New Yorker a few weeks ago on the subject). The White House says that while the nominations are slow, the total confirmed nominees will match the pace of the Bush Administration, because they're working carefully with the Republican senators, and so there will be a wave of confirmations ahead. And then:

But Nan Aron, president of the liberal Alliance for Justice, warned that picking moderate judges and low-key tactics might not work.

“It’s a mistake to think that by going slower and lessening the visibility of nominations, Republican acrimony will be reduced,” she said. “It didn’t work with Clinton and it won’t work now because Republicans will do everything in their power to hold open as many seats as they can for a future president to fill.”

It's hard to imagine that she's not correct.