Will the GOP shut down the Senate over judicial nominees?

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air is wondering...his interested is piqued by this report from The Hill:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday he has not ruled out the option of shutting down the chamber to put fresh pressure on Democrats to confirm President Bush’s stalled judicial nominees. …

His statement came after Republicans brought a Judiciary Committee meeting to a near-standstill to vent their frustrations with what they said was Democratic foot-dragging to confirm 10 pending nominees to federal appeals courts. They complained that there have been no committee hearings on nominees since last September, and say that at least nine more nominees need to be confirmed by the end of Bush’s term in order to match the 15 judges the Republican-controlled Senate approved in the final two years of the Clinton administration.

Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters last month that one of the options to force Democratic action is “shutting down the Senate.”

I know that this scuttlebut has been making the rounds in conservative circles in DC for a while now. Many folks long for the pre-2006 days of judicial fights on the Senate floor. Conservatives were riding high then, no doubt about it. Confirming John Roberts, defeating Harriet Miers and then confirming Alito were all huge wins.

But the difference between those fights and the potential fights described above is immense. Appeals court nominees are important for sure. But they will not grab the public's attention in the way that the Supreme Court nominees did. For this reason, I expect this talk of a Senate shut down to be mostly bluster in the end.

Don't get me wrong; I am all for shutting down either house of Congress for whatever reason. Anytime these guys are not legislating, we are usually better off. But the lack of public awareness about the importance of appeals court nominees combined with the fear of Senate GOPers who do not want to be seen as obstructionists will prevent this scenario from unfolding.