This is amazing.  Republicans are actually doing something that doesn't serve the Democrats.  For real.  They are slow-walking Obama-nominated judgeships in the Senate.  Democrats are charging foul play.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley had a sharp retort for Democrats complaining about the pace of judicial confirmations this year: “Put that in your pipe and smoke it.”

The Iowa Republican’s remark came during a tit-for-tat with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on the Senate floor on Thursday, as the two senators were tussling over the GOP Senate’s rate of confirming judges.

Schumer, the third-ranking Senate Democrat, spoke first, noting that the judicial vacancy rate throughout the United States is at 10 percent and 28 districts are considered judicial emergencies.

Grassley, whose powerful committee oversees judicial nominations, threw out his own numbers. So far under President Barack Obama, the Senate has confirmed 317 judicial nominees, while Bush had 283 approved by the Senate at the same point in his presidency.

Do you wonder why the Obama numbers are much higher?  Because the same Democrats who cried foul are the ones who changed the rules to require a simple majority vote to confirm lower-level federal judgeships.  That let them steamroll in dozens and dozens of Obama judges without any Republican opposition, a rule change that is almost unprecedented in the history of the Senate.  And now the Democrats are claiming a "judicial emergency."

If you wonder what a judicial emergency means, it can take many forms.  It means a federal judge may not be available to force Christian bakers to make a phallus-shaped wedding cake for two men.  It means a judge may not be around to stop a landowner from building over a temporary puddle in his backyard.  It means that illegal aliens in a detention center or prisoners in a prison may not be released quite so quickly.  That's the emergency.

It's  always helpful when Democrats explicitly call something an emergency.  There are so many of them that it can get confusing.  To help, I have composed a list of emergencies and non-emergencies.

Emergency: Not enough lifetime appointments for liberal Obama judges

Not Emergency: Judges ignoring the Constitution and creating new "rights"

Emergency: Israel building a house for Jews in Jerusalem

Not Emergency: Iran hanging a homosexual

Emergency: Funding Planned Parenthood

Not Emergency: Stopping the slaughter of babies and sale of their body parts

Emergency: Stopping white people from shooting black people (<7%)

Not Emergency: Stopping black people from shooting black people (93%)

Tell us how you feel about this particular emergency.  Does it make you anxious or alarmed if Obama doesn't have total control over every position in the federal judiciary?  Does it make you want to stock up on water and food, just in case?  Let us know in the comments section.

This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.