[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 4099-4100]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              NOMINATIONS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, let me echo the remarks of my good 
friend, the majority leader, about the circuit court judge situation. 
We are off to a good start. I wish to thank him, and I wish to thank 
Chairman Leahy for moving the Randy Smith nomination to the Ninth 
Circuit. As the majority leader has indicated, that vote will be at 
10:30. We have had very good conversations, the majority leader and 
myself, about restoring comity to the Senate on the business of dealing 
fairly with the President's nominations for circuit court judgeships.
  The President has met the Senate halfway--some would say more than 
halfway--demonstrated by his actions at the beginning of the Congress 
and by the people he has chosen to resubmit for our consideration. The 
President's efforts have been recognized and lauded by the Washington 
Post, the Los Angeles Times, and several other publications. These 
papers have noted the burden is now on the Senate to reciprocate and 
treat the President's nominees fairly, and we are off to a good start 
in doing that.
  Moving the Smith nomination today is an act of good faith on the part 
of the majority leader and Senator

[[Page 4100]]

Leahy, which I and others on this side of the aisle appreciate. It is a 
good beginning. Of course, it is only a beginning, but it is a good 
beginning. As I have said, the President should be treated as fairly as 
his three immediate predecessors, each of whom finished their terms 
with the Senate in control of the opposition party. Yet those 
Presidents received an average of 17 circuit court nominations 
confirmed. If this President is not treated as fairly as his 
predecessors, then, of course, the comity and cooperation in the Senate 
might be harder to come by. But there is no indication that will be the 
case, and I am not predicting it. In fact, I am optimistic we are going 
to be able to move through these nominations with a high level of 
fairness and comity. Again, I wish to thank both Senator Reid and 
Chairman Leahy for their fair treatment of this first judge as we begin 
to move down the path toward getting a reasonable number of circuit 
court nominees confirmed during this 2-year period.
  I yield the floor.


                           order of procedure

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be 2 
minutes equally divided between the votes on the judicial nominations 
with the time equally divided and controlled between the chairman and 
ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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