Approval of Judges

APPROVAL OF JUDGES

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I can remember a famed lawyer named Melvin Belli who came to Las Vegas to try a case. The law at the time was you had to associate with a local attorney. Belli was very articulate and was so good at speaking to the court and the jury. When he finished, the Las Vegas lawyer stood and said, well, what he meant to say. This same lawyer said: When in doubt, wave your arms, scream and shout.

I think that is what we heard today on the Senate floor.

But what is really present in the Senate is the fact that we have approved 199 judges. We have turned down 6. There are crocodile tears that really are not necessary.

In this situation, if we followed the Republican rule established by the Thurmond rule, there would be no judges approved during the month of July. But we have indicated that we would be willing to approve judges during the month of July, and we have done that. I have spoken to a number of Republican Senators who indicated we would do that. The situation involving these three involve not only substance but procedure-199 to 6. That is the rule.

On behalf of Senator Daschle, I ask unanimous consent Senator Landrieu be recognized for 10 minutes and Senator Schumer be recognized for 15 minutes.