Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. A good example--this isn't even a Federal district judge, this is court of appeals--we confirmed the judge 94 to 5, when we finally got a vote. That was Judge Adalberto Jordan, the first Cuban-American-born judge, from Miami, to serve on the U.S. court of appeals. The Eleventh Circuit is one of the busiest circuits in the country. It encompasses the Southeastern United States. He was unanimously reported out of the Judiciary Committee, but he was blocked by a filibuster of judicial nominees after 4 months of waiting on the Executive Calendar. Obviously, with a vote of 94 to 5, he was eminently qualified. He was not controversial. He had the support of Senator Rubio and myself, a unanimous vote in the Judiciary Committee. Yet his nomination was filibustered. In addition, highly qualified district court judge nominees are facing the same partisan delays. Obviously, these nominees ought to get confirmed without the needless obstacles, facing potential cloture motions, just to receive an up-or-down vote. I am told the majority leader has had to file cloture on as many as 20 of the Federal district court nominees since 2009. It is an indication that we are clearly going in the wrong direction in this Senate. I will give one other example. Here the judge we are about to confirm--and before the chairman came in I thanked him profusely, and the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, for bringing Judge Chappell up for a vote today.…”