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The partisan obstruction needs to end

Actions by some Democrats in the U.S. Senate has resembled nothing as much as a temper tantrum during recent weeks. One might have thought that after the vote to confirm the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, they would have decided more mature behavior was appropriate.

But that has not happened. Democrat leaders in the Senate seem still to acting as obstructionists rather than getting back to governance.

Senate Judiciary Committee members held a hearing recently on some of President Donald Trump’s nominees for federal judgeships. Not a single one of the panel’s 10 Democrat members showed up.

They insisted that because the Senate was not formally in session, the committee should not be meeting. But panel Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said there was nothing inappropriate about scheduling the hearing for that day.

And, as Grassley noted, it originally was to have been held previously. It was delayed at the request of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Despite not having a shred of proof to back up their allegations Kavanaugh was guilty of sexual misbehavior during his younger days, Democrats pulled every stunt they could imagine to delay his confirmation vote.

When it occurred on Oct. 6, just one Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted in favor of Kavanaugh.

Just days later, several Trump nominees for U.S. district court judgeships went to the Senate floor. There, Democrat leaders maintained a nearly — but not quite — solid front. In confirmation votes, nearly all Democrats voted “nay.” Just a handful — between one and five on four confirmation votes — strayed from the party line.

Senate Democrat leaders ought to be ashamed of themselves. Their constituents ought to be outraged.

If there is a good reason to vote against a nominee or a bill, fine. But what is going on now is pure, unadulterated partisan obstructionism for its own sake, not for the good of the American people.

It needs to end. Now.

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