Rush to Confirm

Ed Whelen has a post at Bench Memos that is worth quoting in full.

Given the hard-Left records of President Obama’s senior DOJ picks, it’s no surprise that Judiciary Committee chairman Pat Leahy is pressing for early hearings to make it difficult for Senate Republicans to expose those records.  Compare and contrast:

 

In 2001, President Bush’s nominee for Deputy Attorney General, Larry Thompson, received his committee hearing 50 days after President Bush announced his nomination, and he was confirmed 85 days after that date.  In 2009, President Obama’s nominee for Deputy Attorney General, David Ogden, received his committee hearing 32 31 days after then-President-elect Obama announced his nomination.

 

In 2001, Bush’s nominee for Solicitor General, Ted Olson, received his committee hearing 50 days after Bush announced his nomination, and he was confirmed 99 days after that date.  In 2009, Obama’s nominee for Solicitor General, Elena Kagan, is slated to have her committee hearing tomorrow—36 days after Obama announced her nomination—even though (as a Senate staffer tells me) the questionnaire response that she submitted doesn’t include all the requested publications.

 

If the 18 19-day and 14-day differences strike you as insignificant, have in mind that those extra days would more than double the time that committee staffers have had to review the nominees’ questionnaire responses and the voluminous materials accompanying those responses.

 

In Roll Call today, the Judicial Confirmation Network has this ad faulting Leahy’s rush and placing it in the context of Obama’s broader mess-ups on nominations.

Be sure to check out the ad.