Not withstanding the best efforts of senators during last week's 36-hour marathon Fox News Channel photo op, yet another Bush judicial nominee is languishing on the Senate docket:

The Senate is blocking another of President Bush�s judicial nominees � but this time it�s Republicans and not Democrats playing the role of obstructionists.

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) last week sought unanimous consent to take up the nomination of Leon Holmes to a seat on the U.S. District Court in Arkansas.
. . .
But at least four centrist Republicans expressed doubts about Holmes, based on statements culled from some of his writings. The four are Arlen Specter (Pa.), Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (Maine), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas).

Why is it that these senators aren't fulfilling their Constitutional duties? Is it because Republicans don't want conservative white Southern males to succeed? Are they uneasy with giving a lifetime appointment to one who, when writing on a total abortion ban, stated that "concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with the same frequency as snowfall in Miami"?

Whatever the case, it isn't these senators who are holding up the vote:

Hutchison, noting that Senate Republicans just finished a futile marathon anti-filibuster effort to overcome Democratic opposition to six Bush nominees to federal appellate courts, said, "I will not ever stop a vote from coming to the floor. That�s what we talked about for 36 hours last week."

Pryor, who once practiced law with Holmes, a Republican, in Little Rock, noted that he has been �languishing� on the Senate�s calendar for more than six months. Pryor said he is "perplexed" as to why Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) hasn't scheduled a floor vote on the nomination.

Perplexing indeed.

Via Daily Kos.