I have sought recognition to comment on a couple of subjects. One is the gridlock we are facing now in this body on the issue of judicial confirmations.  It is my hope that we will yet be able to find a formula to break this cycle of gridlock.

I am not going to get into all of the nuances of the so-called “deal” about the confirmation of three circuit judges before Memorial Day, but that deal could have been accomplished had the judges waiting in line the longest been processed as opposed to judges who had not had their investigations done and had not had their ABA clearances.

I hope to sit down with [the Judiciary Committee] chairman to try to work through this…It is my hope we will find a way through this thicket.  I have proposed a protocol where we would have a hearing so many days after a nomination; then so many days later, we would have executive committee action; then so many days later, floor action…What we ought to do is we ought to vote; we ought to bring these people to the floor for a vote.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Politics .