The Senate's senseless stall.(Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service)

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, 12-18:

X X X

``The president is entitled to have at the top echelon of his administration people who share his views and are prepared to help him convert them into policy. Absent some grave moral or intellectual fault in a nominee, the Senate ought to respect the president's prerogative to pick his helpers."

Forgive us for quoting ourselves, but that was what a Chicago Tribune editorial had to say in 1997 _ criticizing GOP efforts to kill President Bill Clinton's nomination of Bill Lann Lee to be assistant attorney general for civil rights. Senate Democrats agreed with us back …