Patrick Leahy: “Yes. Mr. President, one, I compliment the Senator from Nevada. I appreciate the kind words he has said about me. I know…”

“Yes. Mr. President, one, I compliment the Senator from Nevada. I appreciate the kind words he has said about me. I know how hard he has worked to work out this issue. I have been in numerous meetings with him. He has met with both me and the chairman of the committee. We have discussed ways we could work this out. Frankly, I have been in some of those same discussions with my friends on the other side of the aisle. All of us agree this is a reasonable way to work it out. We should not be talking about judges under the question of nuclear options or religious tests or all the other red herrings that have been out here. It loses sight of what the Constitution is. It speaks of advice and consent. Both the President of the United States and the Senate have a role. This begins at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. The President cannot just simply say: I will send and you will consent. It says advice and consent. I think what the distinguished Senator from Nevada has said is something I have heard Republican Senators say over and over again in my 30 years here. Let us work this out. And then let's work with the White House so we have both advice and consent. That is how we got 205 judges. That is why 95 percent of President Bush's judges have been confirmed. That is the way we can work on the remaining ones. So I compliment the Senator from Nevada. I hope his discussions with the Senator from Tennessee work out.…”