(CNSNews.com) - Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says he has a "good faith commitment" from Sen. Harry Reid to confirm three more federal appeals court nominees by Memorial Day.

That would bring the total number of judicial confirmations to 10 for the 110th Congress, McConnell said -- "a good step" toward reaching the historical average of 15-17 confirmations, McConnell said in a statement on Tuesday.

The move to advance three more of President Bush's judicial nominees is part of a deal McConnell struck with Reid Tuesday night: Roll Call reported that McConnell used a popular highway funding bill as leverage to prod Democrat action on the judges.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday evening, said he would "do his very best" to work with the Senate Republican leadership to advance three stalled nominations.

"We believe we need to make more progress on judges," Roll Call quoted Reid as saying. "As I've said before we don't want the minority to be treated as we were treated during the Clinton years."

In March, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed frustration with the slow pace of judicial confirmations. A month later, he told John Fund of The Wall Street Journal that he and other Republicans were considering shutting down other Senate business to focus attention on the languishing appointments.

So far in the 110th Congress, seven of President Bush's appellate court nominees have been confirmed -- the most recent on April 10, when Catharina Haynes was sent to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) noted on April 10 that "The [Democratic] majority has stalled judicial confirmation votes longer this year than in any presidential election year since 1848."

Criticism from left and right

In a floor statement earlier on Tuesday, Reid blasted the Republicans for stalling the transportation bill.

"Rather than work with us to get things done, the Republican approach has to been to delay and disrupt the workings of the Senate. Time after time, our Republican colleagues have seemed intent on obstruction only for obstruction's sake," Reid said.

"In just one year, Republicans set the all-time Senate record for filibusters that previously took two years to set. They have pursued this course on legislative matters large and small. They have even employed this delaying tactic on matters they would ultimately come to support. And the most unfortunate aspect of the Republican strategy is that real people suffer because of it."

Nan Aron, President of the Alliance for Justice, a liberal interest group focusing on judicial issues, issued a statement criticizing Republican obstruction, saying that "Senate Republicans lob quite a few stones from their glass house" when they complain about Senate Democrats "politicizing the process."

"It is not Senate Democrats who have threatened to grind the nation's business to a halt...because they aren't getting their way. It is not Senate Democrats who use the federal bench as red meat for their base. This latest sally is nothing more than sound and fury signifying an election year," Aron said.

Quin Hillyer, an associate editor of the Washington Examiner, said Republicans should insist not just on the number of judges confirmed but also on who will be confirmed.

In a posting on the blog ConfirmThem.com, Hillyer said Republicans should shut down the Senate "if there is no guarantee of a full floor vote this year for Peter Keisler, a nominee to the D.C. Court of Appeals.

See Earlier Story:
Pressure Increases on Senate to Confirm Judges (Feb. 19, 2008)

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