president, unanimous consent to proceed to executive session and consider the nomination of john j. mcconnell jr. of rhode island to be united states district judge for the district of columbia. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, john j. mcconnell jr. of rhode island to be united states district judge for the district of rhode island. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask consent that it be in order at this time to waive the mandatory quorums under rule 22 with respect to both cloture motions. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: now, mr. president, i got a little ahead of myself. there's a cloture motion. i would ask the clerk to report it at this time dealing with john mcconnell. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of john j. mcconnell jr. of rhode island to be united states district judge for the d

postcloture be yielded back and the senate proceed to vote on the confirmation of nomination of john j. mcconnell jr. to be the u.s. district judge for the district of rhode island. that the motion be reconsidered -- the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, that no further motions be in order to the nomination, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action, the senate then resume legislative session and proceed to a period of morning business for debate only until 7:30 p.m. with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. the question is on the nomination. yeas and nays are called for. is there a sufficient second? there is. there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or to change their vote? if not, the yeas are 50, the nays are 44. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and lai

john j. mcconnell jr. is an outstanding nominee to serve on the u.s. district court for the district of rhode island, and i enthusiastically support his nomination." these are the words of a federal circuit judge nominated by george w. bush and confirmed unanimously by this senate. again, i implore my colleagues to listen to what people who know jack mcconnell have said and who use these words: integrity, independence, impartiality. those are the words of people who know him. that is the truth. now, i urge not only on the merits, but also in terms of the procedures of this senate that we allow this vote to come to final passage and we vote for mr. mcconnell. let me turn briefly to the claims made by some. frankly, i'm a little bit leery to address these superpowered criticisms, but they have been leveled and there should be some response. the first claim is that mr. mcconnell is antibusiness. outside of the support he received from business leaders in rhode island and the "providence journal" which has an historic reputation going back several centurie

the question is is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of john j. mcconnell jr. to be the united states district judge for the district of rhode island shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber who wish to vote or to change a vote? if not, on this vote, the yeas are 63, the nays are 33. one senator responded present. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to. the majority leader is recognized. [inaudible] [inaudible] mr. reid: th reid: problems ari. it comes out in the committee. there is ample time to make it -- make the case if you don't like a person for whatever reason. but this is a good man. he -- the biggest problem he has is he's a trial lawyer, a very fine trial lawyer. but i express my appreciation to those on the other side of the aisle who did the right thing. this is going to make the atmosphere around here so much more pleasant. i'm disappointed