All the obvious comments ahve been made except this one so I'll add it. :)
Before GWB became president, if you had 51 votes for a judge (or technically 50 with the VP to break the tie) that judge was in.
Now that number is all of a sudden 60 (or is it 61 - I guess it's probably 61).
What does that mean? Well, for one thing we might well be talking about Justice Janice Rogers Brown's first term on the court if it wasn't for this change in how our constitution operates.
So in all likliehood, we win because Alito gets confirmed.
But in some sense, we lose because the RATs succeeded in changing the constitution.
Only because the cowardly Repubs let them get away with it. All it takes is for cowardly Rebubs to change the archaic foot-dragging Senate rules. If they had any guts they could have slammed the door shut on the Dims obstructionism and delay tactics long ago.