Patrick Leahy: “The Republicans wouldn't allow over 50 of President Clinton's nominees to ever have a hearing or ever have a vote. Many…”

“The Republicans wouldn't allow over 50 of President Clinton's nominees to ever have a hearing or ever have a vote. Many of these individuals were nominated years earlier. We never got to know what the reasoning behind the anonymous Republican holds was. Even when we finally did, for example, a Mexican-American circuit court nominee of President Clinton, Judge Richard Paez, was forced to wait more than 1,500 days to be confirmed. And even then, we had to vote in favor of cloture to get the up or down vote on his nomination. Fifteen Republicans voted against cloture--after he waited more than 20 months for a floor vote during the four-plus years he was pending before the Senate. In fact, one Republican Senator moved to indefinitely postpone Judge Paez's nomination, even though he had waited for 1,500 days, and 31 Republicans voted in favor of indefinitely postponing that nomination in March of 2000. If they had had the votes they never would have let him be confirmed.”