Political Quotes

“later this week, Wendy Vitter will receive a vote on her nomination to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Once our votes are cast, she almost certainly will be confirmed by a slim margin on largely partisan lines, and she will join the Federal judiciary for a lifetime tenure. My hope is that my Republican colleagues will think again and that some of them will demonstrate some conscience and conviction based on principles that I think are more important than any single district court judge and indeed more important than any of us individually, because Ms. Vitter will never again face public accountability for her fitness, her moral character, and her fidelity to the bedrock norms of our time. She will be insulated from all political process. That is what we afford our judiciary. It is the right thing to do. They ought to be, in effect, guardians of the Constitution with lifetime appointments that protect them from political vindictiveness or revenge. But that independence must be earned. It is earned by vetting through a public confirmation process. The Founders placed that responsibility in this body with us, and for nearly a century, these confirmation hearings have helped the American public judge our would- be judges and weed out our wildly radical or unfit nominees. The confirmation process is a vetting that includes a hearing and then a committee vote and then a vote here in the Senate.…”