susan collins and lisa murkowski , two more moderate republican women senators, have the opportunity to be key players in the 115th congress. both because they're among the republicans who might be most likely to defect and because they're both legislative active. just today, the news came out that senator collins is looking a compromise health care bill. you need 60 votes to get most everything, except for budget reconciliation. some of the more moderate might play a more significant role. and, with that, my time is up and then some. so, thank you. [applause] >> so, we are now going to go to corrections. -- russians. -- go to questions. we have the room until 4:00. i'd like to start off with the first question, but then we will have a wireless microphone so please raise your hand and get her attention. i want to start with a question for karen beckwith and ask her to follow-up on her comments at the and of her presentation. tell us more about your observations of how the trump administration's selections and cabinet selection process compares to what you've seen historically as patt

you also had senator lisa murkowski suggesting it was a trying time to be a lawmaker who prides herselfone who believes in the tradition of the senate. really strong language from both sides. >> the tradition of the senate is to confirm the president's supreme court justice nominees. and so if you look at justice thomas, he was confirmed only by 52 vote, justice alito had 58 votes. there was no artificial 60 vote threshold put in place for them. judge gorsuch is a recognized as a brillian jurorist who has bipartisan support. the only thing threatened to be changing over the past couple of days is 200 years of senate precedent that we have never seen a successful partisan filibuster of a united states supreme court justice. >> melissa: at the same time, the warning from the other side is you may regret this. one day it may turn around and bite you. how do you respond? >> if you look at chuck shumer who started this in 2003 with the first round of filibusters on judges escalating to the 2013 implication of the harry reid rule, it's sad the way this has developed. it's one sided effort to