On the recordMay 17, 2010
I, too, would like to address the Supreme Court nominee. I associate myself fully with the remarks of Senator McConnell, which raise an important point for us to consider. I will correct the record in a couple of situations because I think, as the debate unfolds, it is important for us to base our decisions on the same set of facts. These are not going to be particularly newsmaking or big surprises, but I think the record should be corrected. I know our majority leader, for example, misspoke the other day in commenting about Justice Sandra Day O'Connor because there is some similarity--she being the first woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court. I wanted to make sure the record reflected the actual situation with respect to Justice O'Connor. Leader Reid, I totally agreed with when he described her as 'one of my favorite Court Justices.' He said it is 'not because she is a Republican but because she was a good judge.' I subscribe to that as well. He said: She had run for public office. She served in the legislature in Arizona. That is why she could identify with many problems created by us legislators, and she could work her way through that. For the record, I wanted to indicate her experience on the bench as a judge, since it is not the case that she did not have prior judicial experience when nominated to the Supreme Court. She was actually appointed to the bench by our Democratic Governor at the time, Bruce Babbitt.
