Chris Dodd: “I thank my colleague and I appreciate again his comments. I will be very brief in my comments this afternoon. I notice…”

“I thank my colleague and I appreciate again his comments. I will be very brief in my comments this afternoon. I notice there are other Members here. I saw my friend from Virginia, Senator Allen, in the Chamber. Senator Coleman of Minnesota has already spoken, but he may want to speak. I think Senator Levin of Michigan may be coming over shortly. I will reserve for tomorrow further discussion of the nominee himself and the reasons for my objection for this nomination going forward, but, rather, I will focus in these brief minutes, if I may, on where we are and the procedural situation in which we find ourselves. I say to my colleagues it is awkward. We have just come through a rather contentious period in the history of the Senate over the last number of days dealing with how we deal with executive branch nominees. It would not have been my choice to have this matter come up in the midst of all this or in the wake of all of this. I would have preferred we had dealt with judicial nominations, which I thought was the primary rationale for the crisis we ran into over the extended debate rule. However, it is clearly the choice and the right of the majority, in my view, to set the agenda. As such, they have set the agenda to bring Mr. Bolton's nomination up before the Senate rather than additional judicial nominations before the Memorial Day recess. I have been asked and objected to a unanimous consent request that would have allowed for an up-and-down vote on Mr.…”