According to a recent story on NPR, the Republican-dominated Senate during the Clinton administration had an appalling record on approval of judicial nominees. They routinely held them up in committee, where a single nay vote could tie up a nomination indefinitely (I'm not sure exactly why this is, but apparently it's how the rules work). This led to the current shortage of federal judges in this country. Now the Republicans want to fill the void (or stack the deck?) by fast-tracking their nominees through the same process, and the Democrats are resisting this -- which constitutes either revenge or fair play, depending on your point of view.