01/12/2006

WASHINGTON (AP)- Senator Joe Biden says Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees should be abandoned.

Biden says the nominees are so mum about major legal issues at their Senate confirmation hearings that the hearings serve little purpose.

Biden is a member of the Judiciary Committee, which has been considering the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito.

Saying the system is broken, Biden told NBC's "Today" show it might be better to send nominations straight to the Senate floor for a debate and a vote- a practice that was followed until 1925.