Just got off a conference call with Senate Republican staffers.Of most interest: Tomorrow’s “policy lunch” of the Senate GOP Conference will include a discussion about when and how and how loudly the GOP senators should ratchet up their plans to push the judicial nominations issue front and center again. For weeks, now, Arlen Specter, Orrin Hatch and Mitch McConnell have been promising a major push on the issue (so far this Congress, only 7 federal appeals court nominees have been confirmed, well off the pace Republicans did for Clinton nominees in the last two years of Clinton’s term), including a potential move to “shut down the Senate” over it. A key staffer said that Judiciary Committee Republicans “are really, really fired up about this,” and “so far the Conference has been receptive.” He also said that “Republicans are in a position to make a real headache” for Demo Leader Harry Reid if the Dems keep stalling. But the senators need to hear about the issue more often, he said. “Any amount of advocacy to raise the profile of this issue is helpful,” he said.

So there you have your invitation, readers: Call or write your senator and let him know this is important. Here’s a fuller explanation of it.