41.   Ashcroft seemed stunned by the ferocity of the questioning and two Republican senators, Hatch and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, objected that Kennedy was preventing him from answering.

42.   Associates of Ashcroft, until recently a Republican senator from Missouri who lost his re-election campaign in November, remained confident that he would be confirmed.

43.   Ashcroft was an ardent critic of abortion as a Republican senator from Missouri.

44.   Ashcroft has already convinced the moderate Republican senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine that he will adequately enforce the law.

45.   At the hearing, Republican senators plan to argue that Interior Department officials intended to urge Babbitt to approve the casino application.

46.   At first, House Republicans refused, but Republican senators agreed to restore nearly half.

47.   At the same time, a number of Republican senators sounded conciliatory toward the Democrats who are about to replace them as committee chairmen.

48.   At least one Republican senator, Jim Jordan of Urbana, was defiant.

49.   At one time, he said, two dozen Republican senators were sponsors of a bill to give universal coverage to all Americans.

50.   At their lunch Tuesday, Republican senators agreed that this was a realistic approach.