Collusion with special interest groups to decide policy is not exactly a good thing. Unless your a Democrat:

The memos, dating from 2001 until April 2003, show Democrats working in close consultation with such groups as People for the American Way, the Alliance for Justice, NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Actually, “close consultation” is too weak a phrase. The memos reveal the Democrats and the interest groups to be partners in the effort to defeat Bush nominees — with the Democrats serving as the junior partners.

For example, in one memo to Durbin, dated Nov. 7, 2001, a staffer described a meeting with the groups in which they “identified Miguel Estrada (D.C. Circuit) as especially dangerous, because he has a minimal paper trail, he is Latino, and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment.” The staffer continued: “They [the groups] want to hold Estrada off as long as possible.”

And guess what: The Democrats held Estrada off as long as possible — not scheduling a vote for him when they controlled the Judiciary Committee, and filibustering him when they became the minority party.

Finally, Estrada gave up and asked that his name be withdrawn.

Another memo, to Kennedy, dated April 17, 2002, details how the NAACP Legal Defense Fund asked Democrats to delay the nomination of Julia Scott Gibbons to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Legal Defense Fund officials did not want her on the court when the University of Michigan affirmative action case was decided.

Members of Kennedy’s staff conceded they were “a little concerned about the propriety of scheduling hearings based on the resolution of a particular case.” But the Legal Defense Fund wanted action, and action it got. Gibbons was delayed.

Now that the memos have become public, have Democrats denied any of it?

But maybe the Reps did a little computer lurking:

WASHINGTON(AP) - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said Tuesday he had put one of his staffers on administrative leave for improperly obtaining data from the secure computer networks of two Democratic senators.
Hatch, R-Utah, said preliminary interviews suggested that a former Republican member of the committee staff may have also been involved in penetrating the Democratic computers.

"I was shocked to learn that this may have occurred," Hatch said in a statement. "I am mortified that this improper, unethical and simply unacceptable breach of confidential files may have occurred on my watch."

Hatch launched an investigation after Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., protested what they said was the theft of memos from their servers. The memos, concerning political strategy on blocking confirmation of several of President Bush's judicial nominations, were obtained and reported on by The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times.

I hope this isn't true. The consequences would be damning. If it is true the staffers should be fired ASAP.