More than 180 of Bush's nominations are being held up by the Senate, including 28 judicial nominees. Last year, only 56 percent of Bush's nominees were confirmed, one of the lowest rates of approval since 1989.

No doubt many Democrats are now content to run out the clock on a lame-duck president, rather than approve yet another conservative ideologue for a lifetime job. But Senate Democrats are hardly the whole story.

Bush is still behaving as if the voters didn't put Democrats in charge of Congress in 2006. He is still sending over right-wing nominees and stomping his feet when he doesn't get his way.

A stalled nomination in New Jersey illustrates the president's contributions to gridlock.

In 2006, Bush nominated Noel Hillman to become a U.S. District Court judge. Hillman had strong credentials, having served as chief of the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section. He was the lead prosecutor in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

The president did what is customary - he consulted New Jersey's two Democratic senators, Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez. They approved of Hillman's nomination. He was confirmed, and serves in the district court in Camden.

In 2007, Bush nominated Hillman to replace Samuel Alito on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, after Alito was appointed to the Supreme Court. Hillman was considered a lock for the job.

Then, abruptly, Bush withdrew Hillman's nomination last summer without explanation. One published report suggested that Hillman would have faced Democratic opposition over the Justice Department's handling of public corruption cases.

During Hillman's tenure at Justice, the department was accused of ignoring possible GOP corruption and concentrating on Democratic targets. The related sacking of U.S. attorneys traced a trail to the doorstep of former presidential adviser and partisan mischief-maker Karl Rove.

Whatever the reason for Hillman's withdrawal, Lautenberg and Menendez said Bush didn't consult with them before nominating another candidate, attorney Shalom D. Stone.

Stone is not considered an ideologue, but his membership in the ultra-conservative Federalist Society has raised questions. Its members oppose what they call a "liberal orthodox ideology" practiced in the legal profession.

Stone's nomination is expected to go nowhere.

Neither is that of Richard Honaker, up for the federal bench in Wyoming. As a state legislator, Honaker sponsored a defeated bill that would have outlawed most abortions in Wyoming.

Bush has to send the Senate more mainstream nominees if the impasse over their confirmation is to thaw.