Breaking on MSNBC, we have a date for the start of the confirmation hearings for Judge Sotomayor.
Moments ago on the Senate floor, Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy announced that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearing will begin on July 13.
This is obviously a victory for the Obama White House. The Administration wanted this wrapped up by the August recess. The GOP was trying to push this off until September. Expect a lot of whining by the GOP in the next few hours; they were trying to use Judge Sotomayor's vast experience as a reason to delay the hearings:
But Republicans say there should be enough time to review Sotomayor’s more than 3,000 cases from her time as a federal judge — and they want to move to a final confirmation vote in September. Politically, Republicans hope they could use the August break to mount opposition at a time when the news cycle is slow and they could get a lot of airtime for their criticsm.
The latest Democratic line of defense is that Sotomayor is a "better-known quantity" than current Chief Justice John Roberts was before his confirmation hearings in 2005, and she should require less time to review her background and rulings. "Everything she has done has been out in public. She’s already a known quality, unlike Roberts," said one Democratic insider.
But Democrats are also not sure how much leeway Sessions will be given to negotiate with Leahy on timing for the hearings. Wednesday’s meeting was viewed by Democrats as a chance to get a read on Sessions himself and determine how much freedom he will be given to operate as the ranking member on Judiciary.
As noted in the article, there was a real worry about the Dem leadership caving to the Repubs on this, although that might have been overstated as Harry Reid wasn't in charge of picking the date. Leahy is a good guy, and wouldn't likely embarass the President by going against his timeline. So set your TiVO's!
Update: Per MSNBC, Kelly O'Donnell is reporting that Leahy was originally wanting July 7th, but agreed to move it back a week. If true, that would have been VERY quick.
Update: John Roberts nominated July 19, 2005; hearings started September 12, 2005.
Sam Alito nominated October 31 2005; hearings started January 9th, 2006.
Update: Senator Grassley is on MSNBC complaining, right on cue. As expected he is complaining about her vast experiece not giving them enough time to go through all of her cases.