Political Quotes

“the other subject I want to talk about today is also, I hope, good news in that it involves what I think the Senate will be able to take up very soon, and that is the nomination of the last of the President's Cabinet officers, who is John Walters to be the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, often known as the drug czar. John Walters has a great history of service in the area of drug control policy. He is a superb nomination of President Bush. His nomination has been around now for over 5 months. The President nominated him on June 5. We are now 5 months later and he has not yet been confirmed by the Senate. His hearing was held on October 10, a month after it had originally been scheduled on September 11, and this hearing lasted I think over 3 hours. He was asked a lot of questions by a lot of the members. I think anything that had been on anybody's mind was adequately covered. I think subsequent to that time he has answered over 60 questions with a lot of subparts that have gone into further detail, including questions submitted by members not even of the Judiciary Committee chaired by the Presiding Officer. I am hopeful that at our business meeting this week John Walters will be passed out of the Judiciary Committee so that he can be considered by the full Senate and we can have him confirmed and he can be in place before Thanksgiving.”