Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans, breaking a Democratic blockade against President Bush's key conservative judicial nominees, put Miguel Estrada a step closer Thurssday to becoming the first Hispanic on the U.S. Court of Appeals in the nation's capital. On a 10-9 vote strictly along party lines, Republicans used their new majority from last fall's election to make Estrada, 41, the first conservative appeals court nominee to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee since Bush took office. "The committee has spoken, progress is being made, the logjam in the Senate is now breaking," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. Aware that the appeals...