I read Benjamin Wittes' Confirmation Wars: Preserving Independent Courts in Angry Times a short while ago, and liked it a great deal.

Wittes, a Washington Post editorial writer, thoughtfully and dispassionately looks at how the federal judicial confirmation process has deteriorated over time (and he persuasively argues that it has indeed deteriorated), and what can be done about it. And while I'm not sure that his proposal -- accept ideological judgments about the nominees' record and likely views, but get rid of confirmation hearings and most other Senatorial questioning of the nominees -- is correct or politically feasible, I'm certainly not sure of the contrary, and I think his arguments have to be seriously considered.