WASHINGTON — The stately committee room was packed to standing-room only. The television cameras were set to capture every word from the controversial judicial nominee from Utah. A row of aides sat eagerly awaiting whispered instructions from Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, poised in his trademark dark blue suit and perfectly centered striped gold, red and blue tie.

Then the Utah Republican, and those assembled, waited and waited this November day for his fellow committee members to arrive.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-New York, made a brief appearance to pitch a different nominee for a New York district court during the hearing, but left. And a beleaguered Sen. Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who will likely succeed Hatch as committee chairman when the 109th Congress starts next year, arrived late.

No other senator bothered to show up, so Hatch directed the show go on without them.

For Hatch, who has spent six years heading one of the most powerful committees on Capitol Hill handling a potpourri of controversial issues, it was an anticlimactic last meeting as chairman. He had hoped to use his power and influence to rescue the nomination of Thomas Griffith, the general counsel at Brigham Young University who has been targeted as too conservative, or worse.

Chances were slim at best to get a difficult judicial nomination to the Senate floor in a lame-duck session, a post-election interval during which lawmakers tend to focus primarily on end-of-session housekeeping duties.

But Hatch sounded like anything but hopeless.

As the 108th Congress comes to an end, "it could still reconvene before year's end to tackle a variety of issues left hanging." So does Hatch's tenure, status and perception as a go-to senator who can and did make the impossible happen.

Hatch, whose term as chairman expires because Republicans have a six-year term limit for chairmanships, is putting a brave face on the transition from star to bench player.

"I was effective passing legislation before I was chairman, and I will continue to work hard and will be effective after I am no longer chairman," he told the Deseret Morning News in an interview earlier this month. "I understand the ins and outs and nooks and crannies. I understand the personalities here."

In the past few months alone, Hatch used his position to win approval for far-ranging legislation expanding the use of DNA evidence in criminal cases and to exonerate the innocent, to reform copyright laws and help restore funding to downwinders sickened by nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s.

A lot of political hay was made of President Bush's court nominations that did not get Senate approval. Still, Hatch is proud of the 204 judges that were approved (100 of those confirmations came during 17 months when the committee had shifted to Democratic control and Hatch was the ranking minority member).