A report on today's confirmation hearing for Kathleen O'Malley, Federal Circuit nominee

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Kathleen M. O'Malley, Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Nominated to the District bench by William J. Clinton on September 20, 1994
54 Years Old

She had a very uncontentious confirmation hearing. Senator Sessions was the only Republican who attended. He had a couple of questions about death penalty reversals, which he didn't raise any hay about. Senator Leahy made an appearance and the Democratic questioners were Senator Whitehouse and Senator Franken. The hearing was very short as far as hearing go. I would guess that Goodwin Liu's hearing was at least 10 times longer.

One notable occurrence, other than Senator Franken hilariously making light of Senator Sessions reference to a "siren of activism," was Senator Whitehouse commenting on the logjam of nominees on the Senate floor:

"Taken to the floor where along with a great number of other judges who cleared the committee unanimously or with microscopic dissenting votes will descend into political quicksand for a while. Regrettably, that is the current situation, I hope that we can clear judges through but I must say that there are judges who have cleared the committee unanimously who have sat for months and months and months on the Senate floor awaiting a vote." -Senator Whitehouse, Kathleen O'Malley, confirmation hearing, July 28th 2010.

http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=4725