| | Judiciary Committee delays Holder hearing again to accommodate GOP
Leahy calls decision 'disappointing'After a spat last week with Arlen Specter and other Senate Republicans, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has agreed to delay the confirmation hearing for Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder.
The committee also released a lengthy questionnaire (.pdf) Holder completed in advance of his hearing.
The confirmation hearing for President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be the nation's top law enforcement officer is now slated for Jan. 15. It had originally been planned for Jan. 8, but Specter, the committee's ranking Republican, complained that would not give GOP senators enough time to prepare.
In a statement announcing the delay, Leahy said the committee would have more time because Obama has not yet announced nominees for other high-ranking Justice Department posts.
"Therefore, to accommodate the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, at their request we are delaying the hearing, again," he said.
Obama announced Holder's nomination on Dec. 1, two weeks after word of his selection first began to leak. Specter said in mid-November that he would not hold up the Attorney General's confirmation, but last week he requested that the hearing be pushed back to Jan. 26.
Leahy noted that Attorneys General typically are confirmed within three weeks of their announcement, and that as it stands Holder's hearing will come six weeks after Obama tapped him to fill the position. The committee had previously discussed holding the hearing as early as late December.
"It is disappointing to me that they are insisting that we delay at a time when the nation needs its top law enforcement officer and national security team in place and working," he said. "I trust that with this additional time to prepare, they will cooperate in proceeding promptly to Committee and Senate consideration of the historic Holder nomination as Democrats did for President Bush."
A Specter spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the delay.
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