After sixteen days of hearings the Committee recommended Strauss's confirmation to the full Senate by a vote of 9–8. By now the struggle was in the forefront of the national political news, with a "Time" cover story calling it "of the biggest, bitterest, and in many ways most unseemly confirmation fights in Senate history." In preparation for the floor debate on the nomination, the Democratic majority's main argument against the nomination was that Strauss's statements before the committee included semi-truths and outright falsehoods and that under tough questioning Strauss tended towards ambiguous responses and engaging in petty arguments.