Senate security officials are conducting an investigation into "the sequence of events that led to the unauthorized audio broadcast" of the closed session, according to a Judiciary Committee aide. All they know at this point, the aide said, is that the committee's practice of not broadcasting executive business meetings "was not followed."

Brad McGuire, the content manager of C-SPAN.org, explained that all of the Senate committee rooms are wired to stream audio. "If the feed is on, it streams through the Web site live," he said. It's up to the committee to turn off the feed during private sessions, McGuire said.

True, indeed, a GOP Judiciary Committee aide confirmed.

On June 17, 2004, the Detroit Free Press reported (available on Lexis.com):

Last week, Hatch postponed a committee vote on Saad's nomination after a closed-door hearing at which Stabenow and Levin objected to Saad because of information uncovered during a routine FBI background check. No details were revealed. The judges have been waiting roughly two years.

Senator Hatch referred to the information coming out in his floor statement of July 23, 2004 supporting Saad's nomination: [US Fed News July 21, 2004, available on Lexis.com]

I hope that our consideration of Judge Saad's nomination is not overshadowed by collateral arguments about the propriety of his nomination, the committee blue slip process, an attack on his personal character and qualifications, or other diversionary arguments. The question before the Senate is the qualifications of Judge Saad to sit on the federal bench.

Update: Bloggers have more to say on this:

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