Nominations can no longer be filibustered since then-Majority Leader Harry Reid invoked the "nuclear option" five year ago. They can still be slowed down, though, because anything less than unanimous consent requires 30 hours of debate per nomination, and the Democrats are now requiring that for every nomination whether they have anything against the nominee or not.

That is an "uncommonly silly" rule, to borrow Justice Stewart's famous term. Aside from Supreme Court Justices and cabinet officers, no nomination needs more than an hour of floor debate, if any at all. Hugh Hewitt writes in the WaPo that current Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is on the verge of dumping that rule the same way that Sen. Reid dumped the filibuster. Maybe that should be called the "fallout option."

Hopefully this will expedite nominations. It is quite uncalled for that so many highly qualified people have to put their lives on hold while the Senate dithers.

President Trump renominated a bunch of judicial nominees Tuesday, a step made necessary by the election of a new Congress. Conspicuously missing are the three California nominees to the Ninth Circuit: Patrick Bumatay, Daniel Collins, and Kenneth Lee. They are caught up in a "blue slip" dispute with California's senators. Gregg Re has this report for Fox News.