Predictions, Part 2

Well gosh, Atrios is just a smart guy. The GOP holding up Obama's cabinet? Nobody saw that coming, etc. blah blah blah. I figured it would be Susan Rice as UN Ambassador, but with Blagogate having opened the door to giving Obama a hard time as a national sport, it seems the initial target is the more obvious of the choices, AG nominee Eric Holder.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for a delay in Holder's confirmation hearings because of troubling questions stemming from Holder's role in the pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich.

This led the committee's chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), to fire off an agitated letter accusing his colleague of making unreasonable demands.

Leahy said he was "confounded" at Specter's surprise that the Holder hearings had been scheduled for Jan. 8, two days after the 111th Congress convenes. Specter said Wednesday he didn't think the confirmation hearings could happen until Jan. 26, a week after Obama's inauguration, so Republicans could have ample time to review thousands of pages of documents and the nominee's FBI background check.

"My recollection is that your initial reaction on November 18 was that you were at that time already reviewing his record," Leahy wrote. "Of course, Eric is someone you and I both know well and have known and worked with for years."

Leahy noted that the Holder hearings were scheduled within a comparable time-frame of other Attorney General nominees. While word began to leak that Holder would be the nominee in mid-November, Obama made the official announcement last week, more than a month before the hearing's are scheduled.

Specter's attempt to delay the hearings marks a shift from earlier statements on Holder. Appearing on MSNBC on Nov. 19, Specter voiced concern about the Rich pardons but specifically said he would not obstruct confirmation hearings.

"Would I hold it up? No," He told Andrea Mitchell. "I would be prepared to move ahead very promptly with hearings. Move into the substance of the matter. Ask the important questions. Look for any documents that might be relevant.

"As fast as we can move through, I'm prepared to decide it one way or another," he continued. "I wouldn't hold it up."

It's unclear what changed in the three weeks since that interview aired.

Blagogate, you idiots.

The GOP smells an opening here. Obama's honeymoon is officially over with both the GOP and the press, and that means it's open season on him.

The Village Idiots are now going to do everything they can to sink Obama under the weight of Rod Blagojevich's ego.