Yes, blender has one circular selection feature in that fashion. (by pressing "b" "b" in edit mode)

You can adjust the selection diameter with the mousewheel, everything inside the circle is selected while clicking.
Middle click deselect in the same way.

I like the instant action "move and select" aspect of it (a bit like the swipe feature in the style browser in Moi), touching objects as you got with an adjustable target.
I know it's designed for vertex selection but it's a darn quick method.


Marc