Trent Lott: “I have argued we should not filibuster Federal judges. One time when I sat in that seat as majority leader, my…”

“I have argued we should not filibuster Federal judges. One time when I sat in that seat as majority leader, my colleagues actually voted to filibuster a judge and opposed cloture. Senator Hatch and I took to the floor and said we are not going to do this. This is wrong. If you want to vote against him, vote against him, but we are not going to filibuster these judges. Those judges were Judges Paez and Berzon in 2000. We had a second vote, reversed the previous vote which opposed cloture, invoked cloture, and then voted on those nominees. I voted against them both, but I thought they deserved an up-or-down vote. Here tonight and tomorrow, when we vote, at the very minimum we should not filibuster this nomination. We should allow this judge to have an up-or-down vote. One of the speakers tonight indicated he would vote against him. Fine, if that is what your conscience dictates. But first, we have to deal with this question of should we start down this trail of filibustering qualified judges because we disagree with some philosophical position. We shouldn't do that. If we do it here, we will do it again later. If we do it in this administration, we will do it in another administration. Give the man an up-or-down vote. I believe--I am absolutely convinced--that he will be confirmed.”