The Senate leadership has decided to call for a cloture vote on Thursday on Miguel Estrada’s nomination. While there are currently only 55 votes, Republicans intend to have additional debate and cloture votes after Thursday.

The resistance is on increasingly thin rhetorical ice. They have said for weeks that they would give him a hearing if he simply answered questions. After the White House sent out a call for additional questions, not one was forwarded to Estrada, and only one Senator (Byrd (D-WV)) made an attempt to personally meet with Estrada. It appears that they didn’t have so many unanswered questions after all.