Sonia Sotomayor can breathe easier.
Now that the least-senior Judiciary Committee Republican - Oklahoma's Tom Coburn - has finished his first found of questions and the committee's brief break is over, the Supreme Court nominee is fielding questions from five Democrats and will continue to do so for almost two hours before taking one in an open hearing from a Republican.
Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island praised the nominee effusively in his 30 minutes before the committee took a brief break.
Thanks to the Democrats' five-seat edge on the Judiciary Committee, four more Democrats will follow Whitehouse. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, whose time is now under way, will be followed by Ted Kaufman of Delaware, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Al Franken of Minnesota. This will end the first round of questioning.
The panel then will go behind closed doors with Sotomayor to review the contents of her FBI background check, before a second round of questioning, to be kicked off by Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt.
Former committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., instituted the practice of reviewing the background check in secret after the 1991 nomination of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, which was nearly derailed by eleventh-hour allegations that Thomas had sexually harassed former co-worker Anita Hill.
--Keith Perine contributed to this post.
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