Are We There Yet?

A question posed to the Change.org audience over a month ago may finally be answered.

Question: How Do We Prevent Pro-Life Democrats from Filibustering Pro-Choice Female Nominees?

Answer: You get two Republican women to vote for the pro-choice, Democratic female nominee to the Office of Legal Counsel instead.

Or at least that is what Talking Points Memo reporter, Brian Beutler, seems to suggest as one possibility in his post today:

Although her confirmation process has been stalled for months now, Dawn Johnsen seems confident that she's poised for a breakthrough. Maybe. Johnsen--who was nominated in April to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel--has been spotted around Washington in recent days, and is rumored to have moved in to town....Johnsen's confirmation now rests on the support of Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. And their reluctance is at least as puzzling as Nelson's.

Nelson, after all, is a pro-life Democrat from a conservative state, and, whether or not these concerns are sincere, Johnsen's detractors cite her history of pro-choice advocacy as their main grounds for opposition. But Collins and Snowe are pro-choice. And, moreover, they both have a consistent record of opposing the obstruction of executive branch nominees....For Snowe and Collins to slow walk Johnsen like this doesn't make much sense when you look at their records. But maybe Johnsen knows something we don't know.