41.   One conservative senator, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, said tensions rise and fall, but he respects Kassebaum for bringing grace and honesty to the Senate.

42.   One conservative senator who wound up voting in favor of McKeown also delivered a diatribe against the court to which she has been nominated.

43.   Phil Gramm, the hard charging unabashedly conservative senior senator from Texas, chuckles when he hears the various rumors about his political future.

44.   Scores of conservative senators opposed sending American troops.

45.   Several senior Republican senators pledged their support for Hormel, whose nomination died last Congress because conservative senators blocked a floor vote.

46.   Several conservative senators, including Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, have threatened to block a vote on the bill through a filibuster.

47.   Several new conservative Republican senators, including John Ashcroft of Missouri, landed on her committee.

48.   She is also the wife of Mitch McConnell, the conservative senator from Kentucky who has led the opposition to campaign finance reform.

49.   Some conservative Republican senators with longtime records opposing abortion, such as Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, already have denounced the Foster nomination.

50.   Some conservative Republican senators have also objected to Berzon, a member of the board of the American Civil Liberties Union, saying she is too liberal.