Political Quotes

“I rise today in support of legislation offered by Senators Schumer and Alexander to streamline the nomination process so incoming Presidents can get their teams in place more quickly and put them to work doing the people's business. On August 5, 1789, the Senate took up and confirmed 102 executive nominations that had been sent up by President Washington just 2 days earlier--rejecting only one nominee. Our first President, in a letter to the Senate, complained about the one he didn't get. If the Senate ever doubted the fitness of one of his nominees it should--and I quote ``communicate that circumstance to me, and thereby avail yourselves of the information which led me to make them and which I would with pleasure lay before you.'' Modern Presidents of both parties would sigh over this bit of history because nowadays the process by which a person is selected, vetted, nominated, and then considered and confirmed by the Senate has become-- in the words of one scholar--``nasty and brutish, without being short.'' One hundred days into President Obama's administration, only 14 percent of the Senate-confirmed positions in his administration had been filled. After 18 months, 25 percent of these positions were still vacant. This is not an aberration or anomaly. The timetables for putting in place a leadership team across the government has been pretty much the same each of the last three times there has been a change of occupant in the White House.…”