Breaking News from the Washington Post:Senate Sets Sotomayor Hearing Date
The Senate Judiciary Committee has set a date for the start of confirmation hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to be associate justice of the Supreme Court: July 13. "In selecting this date I am trying to be fair to all concerned," said Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in a statement. "I want to be fair to the nominee and allow her the earliest possible opportunity to respond to the attacks made about her character. It is not fair for her critics to be calling her racist without allowing her the opportunity to respond," he continued in an apparent reference to widely covered -- and later retracted -- remarks by former House speaker Newt Gingrich calling Sotomayor a racist on Twitter. "I do not want to see this historic nomination of Sonia Sotomayor treated unfairly or less fairly than the Senate treated the nomination of John Roberts."
A quick hearing is something Republicans had hoped to avoid, with Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, saying he thought late summer hearings would be preferable. "I don't think that this should be rushed," he said late last month. "I don't believe we can do this before August."
Leahy appealed to precedent in making his announcement. "This is a schedule that tracks the process the Senate followed by bipartisan agreement in considering President Bush's nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court in 2005," Leahy said in a statement on the Senate floor. "....If 48 days were sufficient to prepare for that hearing, in accordance with our agreement and the initial schedule, it is certainly adequate time to prepare for the confirmation hearing for Judge Sotomayor."
The Senate Judiciary Committee has set a date for the start of confirmation hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to be associate justice of the Supreme Court: July 13. "In selecting this date I am trying to be fair to all concerned," said Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in a statement. "I want to be fair to the nominee and allow her the earliest possible opportunity to respond to the attacks made about her character. It is not fair for her critics to be calling her racist without allowing her the opportunity to respond," he continued in an apparent reference to widely covered -- and later retracted -- remarks by former House speaker Newt Gingrich calling Sotomayor a racist on Twitter. "I do not want to see this historic nomination of Sonia Sotomayor treated unfairly or less fairly than the Senate treated the nomination of John Roberts."
A quick hearing is something Republicans had hoped to avoid, with Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, saying he thought late summer hearings would be preferable. "I don't think that this should be rushed," he said late last month. "I don't believe we can do this before August."
Leahy appealed to precedent in making his announcement. "This is a schedule that tracks the process the Senate followed by bipartisan agreement in considering President Bush's nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court in 2005," Leahy said in a statement on the Senate floor. "....If 48 days were sufficient to prepare for that hearing, in accordance with our agreement and the initial schedule, it is certainly adequate time to prepare for the confirmation hearing for Judge Sotomayor."
Late Breaking News from MSNBC:
GOP OBJECTS TO SOTOMAYOR HEARING DATE
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC today that Senate Republicans will not go along with the timing of July 13 for Sotomayor's confirmation hearing. Grassley said he thinks it's too soon, both for Republicans and Democrats, to go through all of Sotomayor's writings. He said the timing of Sotomayor's hearing can not be compared with John Roberts', because she has been on the bench so much longer than he had been -- and thus has a longer paper trail.
Republicans! They are losing it!!
They are using the fact that she is MORE experienced than John Roberts to request a delay in her hearing! How ludicrous!
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