Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is going to put the Pickering nomination on the back burner. Even if he’s just saving Pickering for later, it’s nice to see someone behave like a normal human being and not a slack-jawed ideologue who thinks an up or down on Pickering has some momentous significance for the future of the country. It’s just a judicial nomination, for god’s sake.