In the great “I Can Hold My Breath Longer Than You Can” staring contest between the United States Senate and Miguel Estrada, President Bush’s nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, it now appears that somebody blinked.

I saw this first over at Wired, whose coverage is brief:

“The source said Estrada, who has been blocked by Senate Democrats who see him as part of President Bush’s attempt to pack the courts with right-wing ideologues, simply got tired of waiting and having his legal career on hold.”

I suspect that the Senate Judicial Committee was pretty tired of waiting for straight answers to their questions, too.