It's a tradition that smacks of cronyism in the first place and in today's poisoned Senate it should just be ignored at the first sign of abuse. Don't expect that to happen, though:

"I assume no one will abuse the blue slip process like some have abused the use of the filibuster to block judicial nominees on the floor of the Senate," [Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick] Leahy said. "As long as the blue slip process is not being abused by home state senators, then I will see no reason to change that tradition."

Leahy had to be dragged kicking and screaming to filibuster reform, so expect it to take him a long time before he sees any evidence of blue slip abuse.

Blue slips. Such nonsense. Guys, George W. Bush had this right. Just go in front of the camera every day and say "Upperdown vote! Upperdown vote!". All your arcane and weird traditions are garbage.

Then there's this:

Despite progressives' hopes that the end of judicial filibusters will motivate Obama to pick more liberal judges, the administration official said not to expect the rule change to affect the president's approach when deciding who to nominate. As legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin sketched out in his book The Oath, Obama believes social change should come from elected leaders and not judges.

Republicans, however, believe social change should come from anywhere you can get it. Which i don't fault them for. So expect Democrats to keep nominating centrists and Republicans to keep nominating ideologues and we can all wonder together why the Voting Rights act and other laws keep getting struck down.