Well, it's not his fault but Ambassador Hill is adding more pages to the Congressional Record by the hour. The Senate has reconvened and proceeded to executive session to resume its consideration of Ambassador Hill's nomination to be ambassador to the Republic of Iraq. It is live right now on c-span2 (session may go on for another four-five hours; video's product ID is 285411-1, if you need to look this up later ). Yesterday, he occupied another five pages of the Congressional Record. There will be more pages added before this is all over. See pdf files below:
NOMINATION OF CHRISTOPHER R. HILL TO BE AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ
-- (Senate - April 20, 2009)
[Page: S4430] GPO's PDF
Mr. KERRY. I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from Indiana, the distinguished...
Mr. LUGAR. Madam President, I rise in support of the nomination of Christopher...
[Page: S4431] GPO's PDF
Mr. KERRY. I reserve the remainder of my time.
Mr. BROWNBACK. Madam President, I yield myself 8 minutes.
[Page: S4432] GPO's PDF
Mr. BROWNBACK. I reserve the remainder of my time.
Mr. KERRY. I am going to speak to the issue raised by Senator...
Hill on the Allegation That He Reached an Agreement With the North Koreans...
SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE NOMINATION HEARING, MARCH 25, 2009
[Page: S4433] GPO's PDF
Mr. KERRY. Senator Lugar asked him about this. He said specifically...
[Page: S4434] GPO's PDF
Mr. BROWNBACK. Madam President, I appreciate my colleague from Massachusetts...
CLOTURE MOTION
Cloture Motion
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Begich), the...
Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the...
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay...
Update 11:32 pm: I don't get it. The cloture motion was agreed to yesterday and today, they are at it again. The back and forth started at 10:00 am and on and on it went except for a short break. Senator Brownback has updated his props and brought up General Zinni's name. He was joined in his opposition to the nomination by Senator Demint (talking about the tea bag protests), Senator McCain (who brought up David Sanger's book, Chris Hill's Appomattox quote and General Zinni) and Senator Kyl (who brought up Hill's "freelance diplomacy" and lack of requisite experience). A final vote on this nomination has now been scheduled for 5:15 pm EST. [11:50 pm: ok, apparently according to AP that agreement yesterday included 30 additional hours of debate but Senator Brownback has agreed to cut it short just a short while ago].
