Bench press

Judiciary | Barack Obama begins an aggressive remake of the nation's federal courts | Edward Lee Pitts

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WASHINGTON, D.C.—When Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar complained that "there was no one to tango with" during a recent congressional meeting, the Democrat from Minnesota was not confusing the Senate's inaugural judicial confirmation hearing in the Obama era to an episode of Dancing with the Stars.

Rather, in saying "half the people" didn't come to her party on April 1, Klobuchar lamented the fact that Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee had boycotted the question-and-answer session of President Barack Obama's first judicial nominee. They said Democrats had not given them enough time to examine the lengthy record of controversial appeals-court nominee David Hamilton.

In the GOP's absence, Democrats lobbed easy questions to Hamilton, while a packed hearing room mostly nodded in approval.