Patrick Leahy: “I do want to compliment the two Senators from California for bringing before us two fine judicial nominees: Judge Paez…”

“I do want to compliment the two Senators from California for bringing before us two fine judicial nominees: Judge Paez and, I hope soon to be, Judge Marsha Berzon. I compliment the distinguished Democratic leader for what he said on the floor--a true leadership statement. I compliment my friend from Utah, Senator Hatch, who says we should go forward and defeat this motion to, in effect, kill, by parliamentary maneuver, one of these nominations. I agree with what the Senator from South Dakota, our distinguished Democratic leader, said, that we should not get ourselves in a position where there is payback. Whoever the next President might be, if it is a Republican President do we start doing the same things to him the Republicans have done to President Clinton? That should not be done in judicial nominations. We should protect the integrity and the independence of our Federal courts. I have served here for 25 years. I love and revere this body. The day I leave the Senate, I will know that I have left the finest time of my life, the best and most productive time of my life, the time that I pass on to my children and my grandchildren, by being 1 of 100 men and women whom I respect and have looked forward to working with every day. But that is because I think of this body as being the conscience of the Nation.”