Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise today to offer brief remarks on the nomination of Eric Miller to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. I have concerns about Mr. Miller's controversial record--some of his ideas and his jurisprudence--which I have spoken to on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which informed my vote against him on the committee. But today, I want to speak about my reservations about this body's moving forward with his confirmation, given that neither of his home State Senators have returned a blue slip. Let me briefly talk about what a blue slip is and why it matters. It is not in the Constitution. It was not something imagined by the Founders. It was something developed by the Members of this body to put one further bumper on the power of the President to nominate Federal judges and then for the Senate to carry out its constitutional advice and consent role. For a long time, it worked fine, and I actually had a terrific experience with the blue-slip process. Don McGahn, as the White House Counsel, and my senior Senator, Tom Carper, and I, when we had a vacancy--two vacancies, actually, in the Federal district court in Delaware--went to our local bar and asked for them to put together a committee to interview potential candidates.…”