claim: sen. arlen specter's party switch could "end up giving republicans the ability to filibuster judicial nominees at the judiciary committee level so that the nominees never get out of committee."
author: rush limbaugh
evidence_1: after the november 7, 2006 election in which democrats picked up six additional  senate seats, president bush again renominated the candidates whose  nominations had been sent back to him in september. the republican judiciary  committee chairman, senator arlen specter, however, said that he would not  process ...
evidence_2: oct 22, 2003 ... president's party. the senate committee on the judiciary created the blue slip ( so called because of its color) out of this practice in the early 1900s. initially ....  the ability to determine the fate of their home-state judicial nominations. if a home -state senator had no objection to a nominee, a blue slip would be ...
evidence_3: on may 26, 2009, president barack obama announced his selection of judge  sonia sotomayor for associate justice of the supreme court of the united states,  to replace retiring justice david souter. sotomayor's nomination was submitted  to the united states senate on june 1, 2009, when the 111th congress ...
evidence_4: would have the president and senate consider character, fitness, and  professional competence ... advice and consent, the politics of  judicial appointments 38–40 (2005) (noting politically timed retirements by  ..... intended to prepare her for the senate judiciary committee's hearings;42 and  she auspiciously ...
evidence_5: his professional life on hold for two and a half years only to end up caught in the  middle of a ... although the senate judiciary committee held a hearing on  keisler's nomination on au- gust 1, 2006, soon ... see john cornyn, our broken  judicial confirmation process and the need for filibuster reform, 27. harv. j.l.  & pub.