COURTS/DEMS/GOP/SENATE/TRUMP PEOPLE: “A Republican-led U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday [10-24-18] held the second of two unusual hearings during a congressional recess in an aggressive push to confirm President Donald Trump’s conservative judicial nominees including to a liberal-leaning California-based court he often criticizes. Democrats, who mounted an unsuccessful effort to block Senate confirmation this month of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, have slammed the president’s fellow Republicans for holding the hearings. Only two senators on the 21-member Judiciary Committee, both Republicans, showed up for the hearing in Washington on Wednesday in which four judicial nominees were considered. Democratic Senator Patty Murray, who had asked Republicans to postpone the hearing while the Senate is in recess ahead of the Nov. 6 congressional elections, criticized ‘the shameful partisan path they have taken on what has always been a bipartisan process.’ She accused the Republicans of a ‘mad dash’ to secure confirmation.”
–Reuters, “Republicans Push Ahead With Conservative Trump Judicial Nominees,” The New York Times online, October 24, 2018