Patrick Leahy: “I must say I completely agree with the senior Senator from Nevada on this. The senior Senator from New Mexico, who was…”

“I must say I completely agree with the senior Senator from Nevada on this. The senior Senator from New Mexico, who was in the Chamber, expressed concern about time being taken talking about William Pryor's nomination. We are not the ones who scheduled William Pryor's nomination in the middle of the Energy bill. The distinguished senior Senator from Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is in the Chamber. He knows the concerns expressed by members of the committee that this nomination was voted out of committee before investigations underway involving Mr. Pryor were completed. It is passingly strange that when we say that after the nomination has been moved prematurely out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with pending questions, very serious questions involving the conduct of that nominee unresolved, but it gets sort of rocketed onto the floor. Then we are asked to lie down and just let it go through without even saying why we object. First, the rules of the Senate Judiciary Committee itself were violated. Rule 4 was violated. The matter is still coming up. The distinguished majority leader and the distinguished Democratic leader had a conversation in which the distinguished majority leader assured us that this would never happen again. Within a few weeks of that assurance, it happens again, an assurance that no nomination of this nature would come up if it was sent out in violation of rule 4 of the Senate Judiciary Committee.”