Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I also rise to express my appreciation to the Senator from Missouri, Mrs. McCaskill, for her leadership on this effort to reform the way the Senate advises and consents. Because I have great respect for the traditions of the Senate, I was curious as to why holds are a mechanism or a tool available to individual Senators. What I found out is basically speculative; that is, that in the past, there is a belief that Senators--because they could only get back to Washington by horse and buggy or by horse itself--needed time to study a potential nominee. It was a courtesy. It maybe made sense in those horse-and-buggy times, but these are modern times, and the secret hold now, in particular, is being used to accomplish, in many cases, political or perhaps even policy goals. I have great respect for the venerable traditions of the Senate, but this seems like one that should be set aside, frankly. I was also curious to study some of the statistics that I will share with the entire Senate. Since President Obama took office--I think it is 16 months, give or take a few days--we have voted on 49 nominations. Of those 49 votes, 36 of them--which is about 75 percent of the nominations--have been delayed. On average, these nominations languish or sit on the Executive Calendar for over 105 days. That is on average. Some have waited many months more.…”