In a blow to the Bush administration, Senate Republicans failed Thursday to break a Democratic filibuster on the judicial nomination of Miguel Estrada. President Bush called the Democratic blockade "a disgrace," and GOP senators denounced what one described as "simple raw politics.

The GOP-controlled Senate on Tuesday ended a nearly two-year Democratic filibuster of California judge Janice Rogers Brown, putting her on track to become the second black woman on what many people consider to be the nation’s second highest court.