I had this same thought about a half hour ago. Rejecting all three nominees for the D.C. Circuit is just another way of effectively shutting down part of the government. Senator McCaskill is saying something very similar:
Asked by MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell about the Senate's votes to block the nominations of Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) to the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Patricia Millett to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, McCaskill said she was "disappointed."
snip
"There's two ways to shut down the government. One is by denying funding to the government," the Missouri Democrat said. "The other is by blocking the appointments to serve in the government for false political reasons."
"This isn't about the workload of the D.C. Circuit Court," she continued, arguing the GOP was "ginning up specious reasons" to block President Barack Obama's nominee to an appeals court that handles major litigation coming out of the federal government.
TPM
The only way to end this second Republican shutdown is to nuke the filibuster, at least with respect to presidential appointments. There will be support and understanding from most Americans because they just have suffered the effects of the first shutdown.
Senator McCaskill portrays it correctly. End the new Republican shutdown by ending the filibuster. Spread the meme.