From an April 20 MoveOn PAC email to supporters:

This fight is about saving one of the last barriers standing between radical Republicans and total control of the American political system. That barrier, the filibuster, was created for this kind of situation: it’s designed to force the members of the Senate to find judicial candidates who they can all agree on, and to make it difficult to give lifetime appointments to radical zealots. It’s a crucial part of the system of checks and balances that makes our country work.

This is outright dishonesty. The filibuster was not “designed to force the members of the Senate to find judicial candidates who they can all agree on” or “to make it difficult to give lifetime appointments to radical zealots.” In fact, the filibuster dates back to the early 19th century, but it wasn’t used against a judicial nominee until 1968, and it has never been used as a routine procedural tactic against lower-court nominees. It may generally promote moderation and compromise, but its design simply has nothing to do with judicial nominees in particular.

(For my previous two posts on MoveOn’s ridiculous nuclear option rhetoric, click here and here. For all my previous posts on the nuclear option debate, click here.)