we get two different takes on the process now from caroline frederickson. she's executive director of the liberal legal group the american constitution society for law and policy. and curt levy, he's executive director of the committee for justice, a conservative legal organization and we thank you both for being here. let me just start by asking. how much worse is the vacancy problem now than it was under previous presidents? caroline? >> well, admittedly, at the beginning of president obama's first administration, the vacancy rate was approximately at the same level. at the end of the clinton administration there was 10% vacancy rate and that's what president bush inherited. but over the course of his two administrations they worked that down with the cooperation of the democrats, clearly, to less than 4%. so when we're over 10% now, that's a very significant crisis >> woodruff: curt levy, is it significant and is it a crisis? >> well, i don't think the numbers are quite as dispirit as caroline says, but i think let's even assume that vacancies are high r