So much for Janet Yellen. Also the president’s nominee to be head of homeland security. God help the guy who’s up for the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board and has been cooling his heels since last December.

After a while, this sort of thing can weigh down a presidency. For instance, as you’ve listened with mounting frustration to the rollout of HealthCare.gov, did you ever wonder why President Obama is keeping Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, on the job? Try to imagine what would happen if she left. How much chance do you think the president would have of ever getting a replacement? I am thinking slightly worse than the odds on the White House being attacked by giant killer zucchini.

We all know how easy it is to tie up the Senate. But it’s particularly fascinating, in a train-wreck sort of way, when you see somebody do it because he’s ticked off over a totally unrelated matter. (This is an excellent opportunity to recall the time that then-Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky held up the confirmation of a nominee to be deputy trade representative because he was irked about Canada’s ban on candy-flavored cigarettes.)

The “hold” is not to be confused with the filibuster; well, actually, go right ahead and confuse them. The end result is pretty much the same. The Senate stops dead in its tracks for an endless spree of wrangling about the rules. The majority leader has to find 60 votes to get it moving again.

We can probably presume that Harry Reid will pull out all the stops for Yellen, and he will probably, eventually, be successful. Even though Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, in concert with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, is also planning to put a hold on the nomination until the Senate agrees to take up a bill calling for audits of the Federal Reserve.