July 10, 1997: "I would like to believe that…no Senator is imposing an ideological litmus test on judicial nominations."

March 1, 1998: "Partisan and narrow ideological efforts to impose political litmus tests on judicial nominees and to shut down the judiciary must stop."

March 17, 1998: The Senate might be "headed down a road toward an ideological litmus test that does not well serve the Senate, the courts or the American people."

October 14, 1999: "Bring these people up, vote them up or vote them down….But you cannot have a small clique decide they want to know exactly how judges are going to rule before they go on the bench, or they’re not going to confirm them."

July 27, 2000: Senators should "get away from rhetoric and litmus tests."

And Senator Biden's view March 19, 1997: "I respectfully suggest that everyone who is nominated is entitled to have a shot, to have a hearing and to have a shot to be heard on the floor and have a vote on the floor. . . .It is not appropriate not to have hearings on them, not bring them to the floor and not to allow a vote."

-p (gotta luv these "profiles in courage" guys)