Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator from Arizona. Probably the best known function of the Senate--constitutional responsibility--is the right of advise and consent. We take it very seriously. Here that means we have to consider what happens. The Armed Services Committee, upon which I do not have a chance to serve, completed its consideration of Senator Hagel's nomination 2 days ago. Now it is before the whole body. He is the President's appointee. The President has a right to appoint people in whom he has confidence. But we have a constitutional responsibility to consider the nominee. A number of Republican Senators have questions, including the Senator from Arizona, the Senator from South Carolina, that they would like to have answered. I think they are entitled to that. I think if the shoe were on the other foot and it were a Republican President making a nomination, Democratic Senators would say the same thing: Give us a reasonable amount of time to consider this nomination on the floor of the Senate. I have a little experience in that myself. The first President Bush nominated me to be U.S. Education Secretary about 20 years ago. I thought I was a fairly noncontroversial nominee, much less important than the Secretary of Defense. But I remember very well, it was 87 days between the time the President announced my nomination and the day on which the Senate unanimously confirmed me.…”