Orrin Hatch: “if that is treating a person good, I would hate to see one who is treated badly, is all I can say. I am going to talk a…”

“if that is treating a person good, I would hate to see one who is treated badly, is all I can say. I am going to talk a little about Judge Pickering before I am through. I have been hearing comments about how badly the Clinton nominees were treated. Lately, I have heard Democrats suggesting that their treatment for Bush nominees is payback for how I treated Clinton nominees when I was chairman. I want to take a moment to defend my record on Clinton nominees. I first want to state that President Clinton got 377 Federal judges confirmed during the time I was either ranking member or chairman of the Judiciary Committee. That is a number which is only 5 short of the all-time record that Ronald Reagan had of 382. President Clinton would have had 3 more than Reagan--385--had it not been for Democrat holds and objections on this floor. Keep in mind President Reagan had 6 years of a favorable Republican Senate. President Clinton had 6 years of the opposition party Senate, where I was chairman, and he still got that many judges through.”