Harry Reid: “we, the Democrats, just took control of the Senate in June. For the first 6 months this year, the Republicans controlled…”

“we, the Democrats, just took control of the Senate in June. For the first 6 months this year, the Republicans controlled the Senate Judiciary Committee. The chairman was Orrin Hatch. During that period of time, there was not a single confirmation hearing or a single judicial confirmation. They have to get real. They are not. My friend from Arizona says we are going to have to take time out and do nothing here. That is what we will be doing because we have to finish the appropriations bills. I also say what we have to do is very important. We have appropriation bills we must complete. No one is saying we will not confirm judges. Even though we didn't get many confirmations for President Clinton, this is not payback time. We are going to do the very best we can, and the Judiciary Committee has done the very best it can. There are hearings scheduled for this Thursday to report out a significant number of judges. They have known that. These hearings are not something we just planned. They have been planned for a long period of time.”