walter's suggestion, i loved it because it's the same frank capraesqe kind of thing that brings me back to washington all the time. you can reason together and set out a process that would make this dispute totally unnecessary and would give some confidence to the american people that some work was getting done. it's not hard to conduct hearings. you know? they got them done in one, two and three days in the 1920s, '30s, '40s and '50s. there's no reason that they have to drag out for six months, seven months at a time, other than what the senate really wants is not the protection of their prerogative to consider nominations. they want the prerogative not to consider nominations. to block the nominations of the president and they don't have the political courage or the votes to defeat them. and, as a result, they skipped the process that's outlined in the constitution. >> if you want me to respond to that, i would just say -- i would just say this. and that is that the senate is given in the constitution that prerogative to consider the president's nominations and to the extent that they