Heidi Alexander: “redundancy is often a virtue, so I am about to practice redundancy. Last week, I made a speech on the floor of the…”

“redundancy is often a virtue, so I am about to practice redundancy. Last week, I made a speech on the floor of the Senate about the upcoming votes in connection with the President's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and I talked about the 230-year history of this body to always have Presidential nominations for judges--for Supreme Court Justices, for Federal district judges, and for circuit judges up to 2003 by a majority vote. Never in the history of this body has the Senate refused to allow a vote, an up-or-down vote on a Supreme Court Justice. Because I hear that may be what the Democrats are planning to do-- even though Mr. Gorsuch may be one of the most remarkably talented nominees in a long, long time--I want to make the address that I made last week again, and I am going to deliver it word for word in hopes that someone may actually hear it. President Trump's nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to be a member of the U.S. Supreme Court will be considered on the floor of the Senate next week. Some have suggested that instead of allowing a majority of Senators to decide whether to approve the Gorsuch nomination, there should first be a so-called cloture vote to determine whether to cut off debate. Now, you can see what would happen. Cutting off debate requires the approval of 60 Senators.…”