another great one is leaving is, my chief counsel and that is reggie babbin. this guy from brooklyn is hiring a lot of southerners. he is from louisiana. he still loves l.s.u. he is my departing chief counsel. when i became leader, then minority leader, i needed a really good counsel. the minute i interviewed reggie, who worked on the house side for cedric richmond and the black caucus, i said this guy has it all. we've got to hire him. and sure enough my faith in that initial meeting was vindicated. reggie's deep. he's a thinker and when you have a problem, he's turned it over six different ways in many -- in many -- with many different sides of the prism, he sees them all. and he's careful and thoughtful. i'm sort of a yes person. i like to get everything done. he's a little bit more of a no person and stopped me from doing things that i'm glad i never did. he's just amazing. and he's had such dedication in so many pieces of legislation that we have passed and probably at the top of the list is judges. as senator durbin, the chairman of the judiciary knows,