Sen. John McCain has sent a signal to conservatives that he understands what they're looking for when it comes to judicial nominations.

In a response letter to Sen. Arlen Specter, McCain said he wants to see three conservative nominations confirmed to the federal appellate courts by Memorial Day and would support Specter's effort to have the Senate Judiciary discharge the nominations of Peter D. Keisler, Robert Conrad and Steve Matthews. Republicans say all three of those nominations are being slow-walked by the committee. Discharging the nominations would get them to the Senate floor, where an up-or-down vote could be help.

McCain, in his letter to Specter, even twists the knife a bit with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, noting Keisler has been delayed two years, and pointing out he was rated "well qualified" by the American Bar Association — "and Chairman Leahy has previously referred to the ABA's approval as 'the gold standard by which judicial candidates are judged.' "

The letter is straightforward and uses numbers to show President Bush is faring worse in his final two years in office in total appellate judges confirmed than President Clinton fared in his final two years. The comparison is apt since both were facing Congresses controlled by the other party.

McCain (or whoever in his shop put the letter together — it came from his Senate office) has taken a substantive step toward showing he understands the importance of the courts to conservatives, and also understands what types of nominees the Republican political base would like to see.

Specter, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, also asked Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama their opinions on discharging the three judges, and they both said they would defer to Leahy to run the committee.

Clinton's answer is predictable, but as Curt Levey from Committee for Justice notes at ConfirmThem.com, Obama's response is intriguing since his campaign is based on trying to move past political divisions. If there's one area where pure partisan politics still controls, it's judicial nominations.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times