assessing presidential nominees. ask questions out loud in confirmation hearings and in writing and nominees write back their answers. particularly when it's a contentious agency or contentious nomination, senators tend to ask a lot of questions to try to gum up the works. when george w. bush nominated michael leavitt and steven johnson to run the epa, michael levitt had to wade through 22 written questions and levitt, 49. and lisa jackson set the all-time record, she had to answer 118 questions. that was the record. it's daunting, right, submitting written answers to 118 different written questions all from senators looking to find a word wrong somewhere, to try to scuttle your nomination. the last nominee, lisa jackson had too answer 118 questions. guess how many questions the republicans have submitted to the new nominee? 1,079 questions.