Hatch braves hearing

WASHINGTON — The year's first judicial confirmation hearings turned into a circus Wednesday for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch.

That included angry disabled activists, who dislike three nominees, chanting and blocking the hallway with wheelchairs and guide dogs because only few had managed to make it into the packed hearing room. That prompted Hatch, R-Utah, to take the rare action of halting the the hearing to move it to a bigger room.

Meanwhile, Democrats attacked Hatch for "trying to pack the courts" with conservatives by holding a hearing for three controversial nominees at the same time. In the recent past, no more than one controversial nominee would have a hearing at one time. Democrats said they would draw out the hearing to protest.

And liberal groups helped pack the hearing and halls as they passed out literature and wore buttons questioning whether the nominees are soft on civil rights and abortion rights.

Hatch insisted on sailing into that liberal storm by complaining that Democrats had delayed hearings for two years on Deborah Cook and Jeffrey Sutton, nominated to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, and John Roberts, nominated to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Hatch said all of them were among the first nominees by President Bush when he took office. Hatch once scheduled a hearing for all of them on May 9, 2001, but delayed it at the time for two weeks at the request of Democrats who wanted more time to prepare.

In that time, Republicans lost control of the Senate and the Judiciary Committee when Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., switched parties. "They have been languishing in committee without a hearing ever since," Hatch complained. Now that Republicans have control again, Hatch said it is only fair to have hearings on those long-waiting nominees.

But Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the committee's ranking Democrat, accused Hatch of "concerted efforts to pack the courts and put them out of balance" with conservatives by moving all three at the same time, instead of having separate hearings for each.

Leahy said Republicans for years also blocked all nominees by Democrat Bill Clinton to the 6th and D.C. circuit courts, only to try to pack them with conservatives now.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., said that "suggests a plan to press Democrats into rubber stamping controversial nominees," and vowed to question them to "the fullest extent possible" and possibly lengthen the hearing in protest.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., also complained that Hatch did not give Democrats a full list of witnesses until Tuesday, so they did not have time to prepare for the hearing.

Hatch said, "I have been announcing this hearing for two weeks — and the nominees have been waiting 639 days. I think that's adequate time to prepare."

Hatch also gave long speeches and passed out reams of documents defending the nominees as fair-minded and highly qualified. He said claims that they opposed rights for disabled or abortion rights were distorted and came merely because they are conservative Republicans.

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