Senate Democrats Delay Jeff Sessions Vote
Judiciary Committee Democrats want more time to review the pick.
The senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have delayed the vote to confirm Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as attorney general. Politico reported:
The powerful panel officially agreed to delay the official committee vote on his nomination due to requests from Democrats, who said they wanted more time to review Sessions and the paperwork surrounding his nomination. The vote will now be Jan. 31, and his nomination will head to the Senate floor after that.
Sessions, an Alabama senator, submitted nearly 200 pages of written responses to questions to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sunday. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said Democratic staffers need more time to review those answers. Senators may have more questions for Sessions, she said.
Feinstein also invoked last weekend’s Women’s March on Washington as a reason for the deliberate consideration of Sessions’ nomination.
“Once again we are being asked to evaluate a nomination of our next attorney general. He is charged with enforcing the law and upholding the protections that women have fought so hard to secure,” Feinstein said. “This nomination is critically important. This committee must have enough time to fully consider Sen. Sessions’ record to evaluate his answers to our questions and to determine what kind of attorney general he will be if confirmed.”
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OK, help me out here someone. The GOP is in the majority in the Senate. The GOP has an 11-10 advantage on the Judiciary Committee. Please tell me how the Democrats can delay the vote on Sessions without the support of the Judiciary Committee Chairman and the Senate Majority Leader for said delay? And if that is the case, why in the world would the GOP leadership agree, especially after Senator Schumer’s duplicity in the matter of CIA Director Pompeo’s confirmation vote.
These delays are starting to stink to high heaven.
The committee chairman agreed to a week’s delay, out of courtesy to the minority members. Which is exactly as it should be.
Wasnt today’s hearing also a delay? Thsnk you for sharing that it is a courtesy, I didn’t know that.
Oh yes, let’s DO be courteous to those who are trying to destroy the reputation of a good man like they did with Robert Bork. Otherwise they might say bad things about us and not invites us to their cocktail parties.
They are senators, and for that fact alone they deserve reasonable courtesy from other senators. at the end of the day they all have to get along. a week’s delay won’t kill anyone. So long as he gets confirmed in the end, that’s all that counts.
Just go with the nuclear option like the dems did, at least there is a real reason for it now.
Also, Trump should immediately shut any agency that (other than military/security/ and intelligence) that does not have their nominee confirmed by the end of the week. Having most of those closed can only help anyway.
No need for a nuclear option here, the Dems already used it to make this change; now it’s the rules. 50 votes gets him confirmed.
Yea, I just don’t like giving them their dog and pony show. But, oh well, it’s D.C. no one ever said it was efficient or made sense.