John Roberts Hearings

Radioblogger has a great post on the MSM take on the Senate Judiciary Committee's John Roberts hearings. He looks at followup editorials by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, and gives good marks to the Washington Post for having "actually watched the hearings."

For myself, I'm favorably impressed with what I heard of Sen. Arlen Specter's leadership during the hearings. He shut up Sen. Schumer, who wanted to continue his diatribe against Roberts that Schumer couldn't quite disguise as a question. And Specter wrapped up the hearings in just a week.

After all the hoopla at the end of 2004 over Specter's presumed chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee, it turns out that hoopla can be effective. Here's a WorldNetDaily editorial from the day after the election, which is indicative of the concern over Specter's initial remarks. Following all the calls from the Right to prevent Specter from taking over the Judiciary Committee, Specter finally made concilliatory statements that smoothed the way for him to become the committee Chairman. "I have assured the president that I would give his nominees quick committee hearings and early committee votes," Specter said.

With the Roberts hearings, Specter appears to have been a man of his word. And I respect that, especially since his initial statements and his politics lean more toward the left than conservatives would like.

The Judiciary Committee vote is scheduled for September 22, 2005, and the full Senate is expected to vote before the end of the month.