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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MJ who wrote (57282)	1/2/2009 6:29:03 PM
From: lorne	3 Recommendations Respond to of 224756

Republicans press Holder for documents By ALEX ISENSTADT \| 1/1/09 politico.com Senate committee chairmen expect to begin confirmation hearings for Barack Obama's Cabinet picks shortly after Congress returns to work next week, with only one — Attorney General nominee Eric Holder — expected to face any significant opposition from Republicans. Holder's confirmation hearing is scheduled for Jan. 15, five days before Obama takes the oath. Aides to Republicans and Democrats on the Judiciary Committee and sources close to Holder say they're braced for a tough fight over his role in the Elian Gonzalez controversy, his relationship with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and most of all in his role in former President Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich. Republicans are pressing Holder for records on those issues and others. "The Judiciary Committee is reviewing materials provided by the nominee, correspondence from outside groups, materials from the committee archive, and awaiting other documents requested by committee members," a Republican spokesman for the Judiciary Committee told Politico on Wednesday. But it's not clear that Republicans will actually fight Holder's confirmation — and his is about the rockiest road facing any of Obama's Cabinet picks. The Senate hasn't rejected a Cabinet nominee outright since 1989, when it voted down John Tower, President George H.W. Bush's pick as Defense secretary. Before that, it hadn't rejected a Cabinet pick since 1959. With Democrats in control in the Senate — and Republicans looking to pick their battles carefully — don't expect a repeat in 2009. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama's pick for Commerce, faces scrutiny over involvement in a San Diego-based software company that was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but he seems unlikely to face a difficult hearing. "Republicans are aware of the issue, but we're being cooperative with the majority," said one GOP aide who is involved with the planning for Richardson's hearing. "It's possible that it might come up, but it's not going to be a focus of the hearings." New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's confirmation hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee should draw some C-SPAN viewers, but committee aides said it's unlikely that Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), the ranking Republican, will try to rattle the former first lady. "I'm only surmising that it's going to be fairly swift," Andy Fisher, a Lugar spokesman, said of Clinton's hearing. "As is usually the case, the Senate usually confirms its own members fairly quickly." But Cabinet confirmations can be difficult to predict, and a smooth-sailing nomination in December can blow up in January. Zoe Baird, Clinton's 1992 pick as attorney general, seemed to be cruising toward confirmation until word that she had hired illegal aliens as household help leaked out in mid-January. Baird ultimately withdrew herself from contention.