Feinstein defends Obama court pick against GOP

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 4/15/10 | Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

[SmithL]

WASHINGTON -- On the eve of Goodwin Liu's confirmation hearing as a federal appeals court judge, Sen. Dianne Feinstein tore into the UC Berkeley law professor's Republican critics Thursday, saying they were smearing him and applying standards they never used for their own party's nominees.

"It's attack, attack, attack. It's ruin somebody before they've had an opportunity" for self-defense, Feinstein, D-Calif., said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

The committee's top Republican, meanwhile, suggested Liu might be guilty of criminal contempt for failing to list some of his speeches and events he attended in the initial set of documents he disclosed to senators.

Liu "has failed ... to take seriously his responsibility to produce these documents," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. He said Republicans, who invoked procedural rules to postpone Liu's confirmation hearing just before it was scheduled to start March 24, want today's hearing put off for a week - a request the committee's Democratic chairman rejected.

President Obama's nomination of Liu to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has become the most contentious judicial selection of his presidency.

[muawiyah]

Obama should have Liu withdraw and offer him a more culturally broading position as a judge in Cincinatti, or maybe Atlanta.

Liu has spent entirely too much time in San Francisco and environs.

Besides, isn't Feinstein a Chicom just like Liu, or was that Boxer?

Hard to keep the Left Coast Leftwingtards straight.

[ExTexasRedhead]

In my opinion, Feinstein and Boxer personify the word Kapo!

[orinoco]

Ahhh, when the Progressive/Socialist elitist voice of reason Feinstein speaks people listen. (sarc off)