Rebecca Ross Haywood is not going to be confirmed by this Senate. Not because she’s somehow unqualified, not because she “struggled” to answer an interview question from Senator Pat Toomey, and not because President Obama chose a “confrontational approach” to judicial nominations. Haywood won’t be confirmed because Toomey will use his blue-slip power to block her, as he would use that power to block any Obama Third Circuit nominee now. The rest is just a charade, an effort minimize the price Toomey pays on election day for blocking the court’s first African American woman, just as Haywood was surely chosen to maximize that price. Toomey knows it, Obama knows it, hopefully poor Haywood knows it too.