we had one ig who was totally uncontra verbal, michael horvitz, at doj and it took eight months to get this confirmation through. in looking at the record through, roughly the number of vacant ig vacancies are comparable to those in 2004 as president bush was gearing up for his re-election, and i think that, perhaps, suts something about how onerous and difficult the senate process has become, as the chairman suggested. if the chairman will indulge i just want to give the witness an opportunity to answer that, and i'm done. >> do you have any comments, disparaging the senate? >> i don't have any comments. on a personal level, they confirmed me pretty quickly. so i'm very appreciative of the senate. the only thing i would remark, i would go back to ms. fong's remarks in the first panel in which she talked about the complexity of the process of bringing an ig onboard. there's obviously the senate process. there's the desire to find highly qualified individuals, and so there's -- it's a complex terrain, and one in which probably should be evaluated over time. >> thank you. i recognize mys