From the party that owns "fairness"
Paul Craig Roberts, in his current column for Creators Syndicate, observes:

Filibusters have been used when organized interests or regions of the country are strongly opposed to a piece of legislation. But they have never before been used by one party as a means of rendering a president unable to staff his offices and advance a legislative agenda.

As we approach President Bush's one-year anniversary in office, Senator Daschle's continuing machinations to block the President's appointees grow ever more tiresome. The threat of a filibuster over every single confirmation, requiring a 60-vote super-majority vote to break that the Republicans can't command, guarantees that the President will still have empty desks come the 2004 election -- unless the Republicans are prepared to play the same hardball that the Democrats, led by Daschle, are obviously willing to play.

I can't help it. I watch the halls of power in Washington, and I think playground games. The metaphor leaps to mind unbidden. But the White House is playing with a handicap: They're acting like grownups.