In a post titled “Leahy Strikes A Partisan Pose on Judges,” CQ’s Legal Beat adds these details to what I have previously conveyed about yesterday’s hearing on David Hamilton’s nomination to the Seventh Circuit:
Vermont Democrat Patrick J. Leahy insisted on holding Hamilton’s confirmation hearing, despite GOP requests for a delay until after the upcoming two-week congressional recess.
Leahy not only held the hearing, he scheduled two nominees for executive branch posts to appear as well. And shortly before the hearing started, Leahy moved it to the beautifully adorned but very small Senate Appropriations hearing room on the ground floor of the Capitol. Dozens of relatives and friends of the nominees, along with committee staff and reporters, crammed themselves into the standing-room-only hearing. There weren’t even enough chairs at the table for all of the committee members, had they chosen to show up.