I have a question: have Republicans ever used the filibuster tactic to stall debate, or is this a purely Democrat method?
I believe both the Brady Act and Assault Weapons Ban were successfully filibustered, but someone let them get re-introduced by "unanimous" consent when he was supposed to be guarding the fort for the Republicans. Probably didn't help his 1996 presidential run.
Sure Republicans have used the filibuster before.
What we have here a 3 seperate issues
Filibusters for legislation - happens all the time
Filibusters for presidential appointments - I hear this is also well precedented
Filibusters for judicial appointments - there was one in all of American history before 2001.
In a word, yes. If you're interested in a lot of reading about the subject, here's a good place to start:
http://moneycentral.groups.msn.com/ClosingBell/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=4083&LastModified=4675518081130410383
Dang, two of the sub-links on that page didn't work. Only the middle one does, though that was the one I was looking for to give you anyway.