Not confirming judges

On May 9, 2001, President Bush nominated U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle of Edenton, N.C., to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. It took nearly four years for the Judiciary Committee to send his nomination to the Senate floor. It has languished there for more than a year with no prospect for Senate confirmation and no apparent interest by the Republican leadership.

Boyle has been on the federal bench for 22 years, and his only liability is that he is a conservative who spent a year on Sen. Jesse Helms's staff. While he is the Bush appellate court nominee who has been waiting for confirmation the longest, he is not alone. Ten other prospective appeals judges face Senate inaction, with the window of opportunity in the second Bush term already closing. They seem unaffected by last year's avoidance of a constitutional crisis over the confirmation process and the approval of two Supreme Court justices.

Robert Novak

Frist and the Senate Republicans have set a new standard for spinelessness.