Patrick Leahy: “I appreciate the compliment. Mr. Dinh and Mr. Chertoff were heavily involved in what I thought was a misguided…”

“I appreciate the compliment. Mr. Dinh and Mr. Chertoff were heavily involved in what I thought was a misguided investigation, not by them but by Members of Congress who conducted it against former President Clinton and others in Arkansas. However, I believe they followed the directions of Members of Congress, many of whom are no longer here, for a number of reasons. I will vote for them and urge their confirmation when the time comes. I mention this because there seems to be some in the public, some among what I call the more conservative editorialists, who think there is going to be some kind of payback on the Democrats' part for the number of nominees who were held up during the Clinton administration by the Republican majority. I think it makes far more sense to look at nominations one by one on the merits. There is no question if the roles were reversed, if somebody of Mr. Dinh's and Mr. Chertoff's background had been appointed by the last administration following their investigations of Republican Presidents and my understanding and what I have seen in the last few years, they would have been held up. I do not believe in doing that. I told Attorney General Ashcroft--in fact, I told him earlier today-- we intend to move these forward. We are moving forward most of the nominations in the Department of Justice a lot faster than they were 4 years ago in the Clinton administration by the same Senate but under different control.”