From a D.C. Judiciary-Type Guy on the scene in the Senate yesterday:
I keep reading all the conservative blogs and everyone keeps pounding on the Republicans for not showing and therefore not having a quorum in yesterday’s Judiciary Committee hearing. Two things. I was in the room-I saw chief counsels run their bosses down, and in some cases, drag them into the room. We were only missing Coburn, who was chairing a subcommittee meeting. It was evident a lot of the Republicans had a lot to do-DeWine never sat, Graham swung in, sat for ten minutes and kept checking with his chief counsel as to the time. The problem was not a lack of a quorum-it was that when Specter hit Keisler (esp at Keisler), Boyle, et al, he turned to Leahy and asked, “Does the Senator have any problem with these nominees? I would like to get them out of committee.” To which Leahy basically says, “We’d like more time for debate.” And Specter says, “OK.” At that point is really when our guys scattered-the timing of the hearing was poor for several of them, a fact which Specter was well aware of, but I think he’s trying to tell them all, “My committee is the most important of any of your committee assignments and trumps everything else.” Which simply is not true.
There were a lot of stunned looks on our side when Specter gave in to Leahy. We all knew the primary purpose of yesterday’s hearing was to get Keisler to the floor and when Specter caved in 30 seconds, we are were like, “What was the point of getting all the bosses here?” Bottom line-Specter simply does not care. It’s not about our guys not showing. It’s just that I think they know Specter will cave to Leahy, so why bother showing.