Barbara Boxer: “I rise to speak to this nomination of this very controversial nominee who is opposed by both Senators from California…”

“I rise to speak to this nomination of this very controversial nominee who is opposed by both Senators from California, which is fairly extraordinary. I remember well a time in the not too distant past when even if one Senator from a State opposed a nominee from his or her State, that sank the nomination. Then they said it had to be both. We have a situation where both Senators from California oppose this nominee. I can assure the Senator from Utah, if he opposed a nominee who came from his State, and his colleague did as well, I think I would give it a little more, shall we say, attention than he is. The fact is, if you have watched this debate, you know by now that this nominee is way outside the mainstream. You can stand up here and say all you want that she is in the mainstream and within the mainstream. You can even say that she won election in California. What you are not saying is she came up for election about 11 months after she had served a 12-year appointment, and she had no opposition. Nobody ran against her. Most of her controversial decisions occurred after that vote. Anyone who knows anything about California politics knows that it is very rare that judges are made into an election issue. We usually approve our judges. It is very different than what is being presented here, that everyone went out and said: Oh, hurrah, Janice Rogers Brown is running. This is not the case at all.…”