Trent Lott: “Well, Mr. President, here is one of my speeches I guess I am going to have to make every fortnight, but it is 6:20--it…”

“Well, Mr. President, here is one of my speeches I guess I am going to have to make every fortnight, but it is 6:20--it is on Thursday--and here we stand or mostly sit or hide and will not act on important amendments on this legislation because our colleagues will not come to agreement on some provision or another in the managers' package or some amendment. I say to my colleagues, this is no way to legislate. If you have a problem, get over here and state it. If you have an objection, have the courage to stand up--be the man or the woman--and express your objection. This is outrageous, and I am not blaming our leadership. It is not them. It is us. This whole bill has been a curiosity to me because I thought we were making good progress, and then we were not, and then I thought we were going to again, and now we are not. So I tell you--it is not my authority to do so--but if I had the ability to wave a wand, I would say we are going to vote. If you don't like it, vote against it, but you are not stopping these amendments. So I urge everybody involved--whether it is my colleagues on this side of the aisle or the other side--come over here and let's get going because we look pathetic when we do this sort of thing. It is just outrageous. We have votes we could take. We have two judges. Let's vote. Let's have a vote on the judges, and it will give us a chance to explain to our colleagues what the problem is with these other amendments. So I plead with somebody: Pull the trigger.…”