From Rooflines.org:
For the first 38 minutes, it almost sounded like the Senators pitied him.
The Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs spent nearly 40 minutes of the two-hour confirmation hearing warning President-elect Obama’s HUD secretary nominee Shaun Donovan that he would be taking over a neglected, under-funded agency rife with problems that has been relegated to the second tier of the federal bureaucracy and is facing a housing crisis of unknown proportions. Republicans and democrats alike praised Donovan for his “willingness” to take on this challenge and at times seemed genuinely surprised that someone of his experience and expertise would take such a challenging job. As many of the Senators noted, barring some startling revelation his confirmation is virtually assured.