On the recordOctober 6, 2011
I pose this question, and as I look around this floor, with the exception of Senator Inouye, my dear friend from Hawaii, nobody has served in this body longer than I have--on the current membership--nobody. I keep hearing this talk about 60 votes. Most votes you win by 51 votes, and this constant mantra of 60 votes, 60 votes--this is some new invention, I tell my friends, based on my sense of history. So my question to the majority leader, whether we were here with a Democratic majority or a Republican majority, does he remember a time when judges who were confirmed unanimously--every single Republican, every single Democrat voting for them out of committee--would then sit on the calendar for 3, 4, 5, sometimes 6 months because there was not an agreement to vote on them without a 60-vote supermajority? I cannot remember it at any time in 37 years. I do not know if the majority leader can recall such a time.
