Trent Lott: “If the Senator would yield under his reservation for me to respond to his questions, we have tried on other occasions…”

“If the Senator would yield under his reservation for me to respond to his questions, we have tried on other occasions, at least two that I am personally familiar with, to move a grouping of these judicial nominations. I think on one occasion it was not even this same four. There may have been a different one that was considered on this. It was objected to by Members of the minority party. So we have been trying to move some of these judges that we could get approved through the process. Some of them were objected to on the Senator's side, as you have done--or as you are apparently prepared to do today--and others have objected to other judges. We cannot get them all cleared right now. We would like to get the ones we can get cleared done, and come back again later, as we work through this list. Now, in regard to your specific nomination, we were not able to get that cleared today. There have been some reservations or objections raised. We are continuing to explore that. I do not personally know what the reasons are, or how many objections there are. But I plead with the Senator from Montana, once again. These four have been cleared. Hopefully, we can get an agreement on more--perhaps even within the next few days. But if we do not break this down and start getting some approved, the whole thing stays dammed up.”