Leahy reiterated his vow not to hold hearing 'til they get the information they need. Great article with lots of quotes and information.
Senate Republicans on Wednesday fired a warning shot at Democrats on the White House’s still-unnamed attorney general pick as Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declared that front-runner Ted Olson would not be confirmed.
The early sparring over the successor to Alberto Gonzales, who cedes power at the Justice Department on Friday, foreshadows a brutal confirmation battle to come. Minutes after Reid declared former solicitor general Olson was too partisan for the job, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fired a salvo at Democrats who would delay Gonzales’s replacement.
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Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy pointed to the panel’s investigation of controversial testimony in which Olson denied knowledge of the Arkansas Project, a conservative effort to uncover possible misdeeds by then-President Clinton and his wife, now-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
“There was a feeling by many that some of the answers he gave in his last confirmation, answers under oath, were not accurate,” Leahy said.
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But regardless of the nominee, Leahy has vowed not to hold a confirmation hearing until the White House ceases withholding information subpoenaed by Democrats on U.S. attorneys and warrantless surveillance.
“We can’t have a hearing until we get some of the information we subpoenaed,” Leahy reiterated on Wednesday.
Republicans are ready for a fight over those dueling investigations, betting that Democrats will use the attorney general nominee as leverage regardless of who gets the nod.
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http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/reid-well-defeat-olson-2007-09-13.htmlThis is gonna be a big fight.