Political Quotes

“The point that is important to make for people who may be listening is that we Democrats controlled the committee. I remember this case explicitly because I got walloped. I ran for the Senate because of civil rights, and I got walloped because I held a hearing. Every liberal group in the country castigated me for holding the hearing. And then we referred Judge Carnes to the Senate--get this--in September of the election year; we confirmed a very controversial judge. So, again, I understand the point the Senator is making. I just think this is a terrible precedent that we are continuing to pile on here. I think there is going to be a day when the nature of this place--as my Republican friends told me: What goes around comes around. That is a nice political axiom, but it is not good for the courts. We have a fiduciary responsibility under the Constitution to deal with the third coequal branch of the Government. We are not doing it responsibly. What the Senator hasn't mentioned and won't go into because the floor staff wants me to make a request here--but that doesn't even count. The District Court judges, where there are serious emergencies that exist because they cannot try the civil cases because the criminal cases are so backed up, we have held up for over a year.”