Today's 56-43 confirmation vote for Justice Priscilla Owen to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit provides further evidence that the oft-repeated claim that Senate Democrats only filibustered the "most ideologically extreme" of President Bush's judicial nominees is false. As Howard Bashman observes, two other Bush nominees — Dennis Shedd and Jeffrey Sutton — squeaked by on closer confirmation votes without ever being subject to a filibuster.

UPDATE: A reader comments that the comparison may not be valid. After all, there were more Democratics Senators when Shedd and Sutton were confirmed, and yet Owen received the same number of Democratic votes (2) as Jeffrey Sutton. In addition, Owen is only the second Bush judicial nominee to have a Republican Senator vote against her. Nonetheless, Justice Owen was supported by a greater percentage of the Democratic caucus than was Sutton, and she was supported by two Senators (Byrd and Landrieu) who voted against Sutton's confirmation. Then again, the two Dems who voted for Sutton (Feinstein and Nelson) voted against Owen.