GOP Seeks Double Standard in Delaying Goodwin Liu Confirmation Hearing

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After already blocking the confirmation hearing on the nomination of Goodwin Liu to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit once as collateral damage in an effort to slow health reform legislation -- a move that has earned them condemnation from the press -- Senate Republicans are up to their old tactics again, trying to stall hearings once again. Why? Because Liu went above and beyond the call of duty, setting a new standard for transparency in submitting to the Senate Judiciary Committee not only his public speeches but even information on events he merely emceed.

What is also interesting is that Senate Republicans are complaining about timing. The aforementioned Jeffrey Sutton, of omitting Federalist Society speeches fame (and also, like Liu, a legal academic at the time of his nomination), received a confirmation hearing just 23 days after his nomination was sent to the Senate by President Bush (a January 29, 2003 confirmation hearing after a January 7, 2003 nomination).

Would Senate Republicans really have us believe that it is hasty to give a nominee providing the Committee a wealth of information a hearing within 51 days, but it was not hasty for them to provide another similar nominee -- who had not provided information on each of his speeches, saying only about some speeches that he had spoken to groups including the conservative Federalist Society -- a confirmation hearing within 23 days?

http://www.confirmgoodwin.com/2010/04/gop-seeks-double-standard-in-delaying.html

[gratuitous]

1. Process doesn't matter; results do

Nobody will care that Republicans are being flaming hypocrites again, and anyone who points it out will be reminded that "the Democrats did it, too." A point that well be underscored over and over again by the popular media, whether it happened or not, because commentators aren't charged with knowing the truth or falsity of the claims their guests make.

Liu is eminently qualified for a seat on the circuit, far more qualified than the likes of David Sentelle (as just one example). It's not up to the Democrats to play nice with the minority party. It's up to them to enact the agenda that we the people elected them to do.

[usregimechange]

2. All that being true I didn't have a comment from any Dem official to post