out if the report of D'Amato's opposition was true, but that the senator had never called him back. "If it is true, I'm amazed," Summit told the wire service. "I cannot imagine why." Summit also noted that D'Amato had even spoken at his confirmation hearings. "He very kindly attended the hearing in April of 1988 and spoke well of my credentials," Summit told the AP. The AP noted that the journals New York Law Journal and Manhattan Lawyer both had reported that D'Amato blocked Summit's nomination in retaliation for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee having poorly treated two candidates whom D'Amato had recommended for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, New York Supreme Court Justices Robert Roberto Jr., who withdrew in June 1988 after the Judiciary Committee learned that he had engaged in a sex act with a 16-year-old prostitute while investigating a massage parlor in 1971, and Howard E. Levitt. "That a single Senator, never mind one who introduced me to the committee, could simply stop the entire process only a few days before my confirmation without having to explain himself to anyone and without the courtesy of explaining himself to me, is simply beyond my understanding," Summit told the New York Times. "It's not in my makeup to be bitter. But no matter how exciting or thrilling my life now is, I will carry a sense of sadness with me. I had visualized myself dying in that job. I'll be grieving, probably all of my life." After winning the 1988 election, President George H. W. Bush chose not to renominate Summit, and Bush instead selected for that Second Circuit seat his cousin, John M. Walker Jr., who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1989. See also Ronald Reagan judicial appointment controversies References External links Phillips Nizer Profile 1936 births Living people American lawyers Ohio State University alumni Ohio State University Moritz College of Law alumni