Political Quotes

“Madam President, we are going to vote on Judge Jordan, a Cuban-American Federal district judge, who has been named by the President to go to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Jordan came out of the Judiciary Committee unanimously. As Senator Rubio and I spoke on Monday, the two of us, in a bipartisan way, do all of the selection of our Federal district judges--and it is all done in a bipartisan way. In this case, with Judge Jordan being elevated to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals--again, done in a bipartisan way and, indeed, the motion for cloture on the nomination; that is, to stop all debate on the nomination, was passed at a 5:30 vote Monday afternoon by a vote of 89 to 5. So at noon today, we are going to vote on the actual confirmation, which is the second step in the process: after the President nominates, the Senate confirms. Judge Jordan, by our vote today--which I expect will be rather overwhelmingly bipartisan--will ascend to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals as the first Hispanic judge on that Court of Appeals. I think it is instructive that we could have done all of this Monday at about 6:00 after the vote had occurred 89 to 5 to cut off debate. Yet the Senate rules allow even one Senator, if they object--which one Senator did object--to the waiving of the cloture cutting off debate. The Senate rules say there can be up to 30 hours of debate before the matter at hand is voted on.…”