They would filibuster everything, slow confirmation of appointees to a crawl, shut down the government, threaten to default on America's debts, and find any legislative maneuver they could to throw sand in the gears.
"It was the springboard to everything, including the confirmation that we had players who not only could get to the tournament but go deep into it".
"This was a confirmation of everything I did there," he said.
The European Championships in August will give confirmation that everything is still on track".
Lilly is subjected to everything but a Senate confirmation hearing and an appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor".
Cass Sunstein would be the most interesting pick for the court, but his writings on almost everything would make his confirmation hearings a free-for-all.
Having received confirmation that everything was present and accounted for, he let out a quiet groan, took a few more puffs, then dropped off, breathed calmly, looked tranquil.
And when we won the East and went on to the Final Four, to me that was a confirmation of everything that I had hoped for.
That journey through the Californian desert to find fame and fortune, stocked up with "two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-coloured uppers", was also, Mr Thompson claimed, "a classic confirmation of everything right and true and decent in the national character".
And even in this age of the 24-hour news cycle and the rush to "break" news without regard for context or confirmation, when everything is sound bites and snippets, there is still some good journalism to be found if you are willing to invest the time and effort to find and enjoy it.
