[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11528]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, since the substitute amendment by 
Senator Boxer was just given to us at 11 o'clock in the morning, you 
could argue--almost with a straight face--that reading the proposal was 
a good idea, but, of course, that was not what it was about. It was 
somewhat similar to when Senator Reid, the now-majority leader, used 9 
hours reading chapters from his book back in 2003. In a 9-hour 
filibuster over judicial nominations, on November 19, 2003, Democratic 
leader Harry Reid discoursed on the virtues of wooden matches and read 
chapters from his book about his hometown: ``Searchlight: The Camp That 
Didn't Fail.'' That was a 9-hour recitation from a book that our good 
friend the majority leader engaged in on the very subject of judicial 
confirmations.
  Yesterday's tactic of slowing down the Senate obviously is not 
unique. It was not, however, about trying to confirm a few district 
court nominations which the majority begrudgingly agreed to last night 
around 12:00 or 12:30. Rather, it was about the importance of keeping 
one's word in this body, whether it be a commitment to meet the total 
number of circuit court confirmations that have occurred in prior 
Congresses--and we are familiar with what that commitment was; it was 
to do 17 during this Congress, which has been repeated time and time 
again; everybody knows what the commitment was--or a commitment to 
confirm a specific number of circuit court nominations by a specific 
time; and that was the commitment made back in May by my good friend 
the majority leader, that we would do three circuit court nominations 
before the Memorial Day recess. In fact, we did one. Keeping one's word 
in this body is important.
  We are far behind the pace that is necessary for us to reach the goal 
the majority leader and I set for this Congress. If that weren't 
troubling enough, what we heard recently by the chairman of the 
Judiciary Committee are threats to shut down the confirmation process 
completely. Stop it already. Surely, that is not his plan. So be 
assured the Republican Conference will continue to make the point that 
judicial nominations need to be treated fairly and that commitments 
need to be kept, and we will use the tools available to the minority to 
do so until that proves to be the case. This is not over, I assure you.

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