A top Republican Senate aide resigned Friday in connection with the investigation into leaked Democratic memos - memos that show just how nasty and politicized judicial confirmations are.

The memos suggest that vacancies afflicting the court for so long may not have been accidental.

Some samples:

• A top official with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund suggested holding off filling any vacancies until a controversial University of Michigan affirmative action case was decided. "The thinking is the current 6th Circuit will sustain the affirmative action program, but if a new judge with conservative views is confirmed before the case is decided, that new judge will be able ... to review the case and vote on it." That from a memo from a Democratic staffer to Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

• A memo to Kennedy from an unidentified staffer suggests a hearing for Ohio Supreme Court Justice Deborah Cook should be pushed back until after the 2002 election. "It would demoralize the Democrats' key constituents - in particular labor - to have a hearing for her before the election."

• Democrats lament that nominee and Columbus lawyer Jeff Sutton will be hard to beat. "GOP will carp about how only criteria should be excellence. ... Why not use someone else, show White House we mean business, then bargain to 'release' hold on Sixth Circuit." From a staffer's memo to Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.

(The Senate confirmed both Sutton and Cook when Republicans regained control in 2003.)

The Senate sergeant-at-arms' investigation is a probe into who leaked the documents to The Wall Street Journal in November.

Four nominees for the 6th Circuit remain remain in limbo, held up by Michigan's Democratic senators.

Cincinnati lawyer Doug Dennis, who chairs the Cincinnati Bar Association's Court of Appeals Committee, said the vacancies were a problem. But the hardball tactics shown in the memos weren't anything new.

"My impression is that this became normal with the Republican Congress and the Clinton administration, and they're returning the favor," he said.

The documents are available at www.fairjudiciary.com.

PENCE APLENTY: Rep. Mike Pence, a Republican representing the Interstate 74 corridor in northern Dearborn County, Ind., is emerging as a media star.

In the past week alone - coinciding with President Bush's budget proposal - Pence appeared on CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, CNNfn, CNN, and NBC's Today show.

The fiscal conservative's spiel: Republicans need to get back to their roots and quit expanding government.

THEY SAID IT: "I am from Kentucky. Have you heard of Kentucky?"

Elaine Chao, labor secretary and Sen. Mitch McConnell's wife, to a group of Iraqi schoolchildren in Baghdad last week. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, the question was met with "blank stares and some shaking of heads to indicate no."

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Carl Weiser covers Washington news for the Enquirer. E-mail cweiser@gannett.com or call (202) 906-8134.