[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 127 (Friday, August 3, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10853-S10854]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       JUDGE TIMOTHY D. DeGIUSTI

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, this morning we did a great thing in the 
confirmation of Tim DeGiusti to the Federal court. Understandably, we 
are short of time this morning because of what is happening at the 
White House, but let me finalize a couple of ideas and some comments I 
was going to make.
  First, when you have someone who has the highest rating, whether it 
is from Martin Dale Hubbell or the American Bar Association, which this 
candidate did and does, and he also as a military lawyer is familiar 
with courts-martial procedures--there are a lot of people out there 
with these qualifications. This individual goes far beyond that. It is 
interesting that

[[Page S10854]]

while he is a Republican, our Democratic Governor in Oklahoma, Gov. 
Brad Henry, is a very strong supporter of this now-confirmed nominee. 
Also, my predecessor, David Boren, who is now President of the 
University of Oklahoma, was a very strong supporter of this individual. 
I quoted him a few times during this process, as to how outstanding 
this candidate is.
  I would like to share an experience I had 41 years ago. A man named 
Ralph Thompson, who is currently a senior status Federal judge in 
Oklahoma in the same Western District in which his son-in-law has been 
confirmed this morning, and I, and another person named David Boren, 41 
years ago, were elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives. I 
remember it so well because in February of 1967, 40 years ago this 
year, we all three came to Washington, DC, for the first time. That is, 
State legislators Ralph Thompson, Dave Boren, and of course myself. 
David Boren's father was a Congressman so he had a pretty good entree 
into the Capitol. I remember so well the three of us were walking 
around the Capitol at night--my first time ever being in the Capitol 
area of Washington. I remember, after walking through Statuary Hall and 
all these great features we have in our Capitol, that we kind of 
professed to each other, we decided one day--Ralph Thompson and David 
Boren and I--we said we would like to be Members of the Congress, 
either in the House or in the Senate. But Ralph Thompson said: Or a 
judge in the U.S. district court.

  As it turned out, David Boren was a Member of the Senate; I am a 
Member of the Senate; and Ralph Thompson became--I believe he will go 
down in history as maybe being the outstanding Federal district judge 
in the history of Oklahoma. I have heard so many people talk about 
that.
  I knew Ralph so well at that time--keep in mind, this is 40 years 
ago--and his beautiful wife Barbara, whom I might add has been Mother 
of the Year and received every possible honor you could have. Lisa, 
Maria and Elaine--they cranked out three little girls, and Elaine was 
the girl who later married Timothy DeGiusti. Get the connection? You 
have a great judge and then you have a son-in-law who is going into the 
same Western District of Oklahoma to replace him. It is an unusual 
situation. But this is one of these wonderful things that can happen in 
this country of ours. I am so happy this is behind us now and it 
happened prior to the August recess.

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