Rick Allen: “I rise to echo and add to the remarks of the Senator from Texas, Mr. Cornyn. On this first day of debate, I rise to…”

“I rise to echo and add to the remarks of the Senator from Texas, Mr. Cornyn. On this first day of debate, I rise to express my strong support for the confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito to be a Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States of America. There has been much discussion, advertising on the radio, in newspapers, and on television. There has been commentary about Judge Alito, and that is fine. That is the way it should be. Federal judges are appointed for life. This is the only time that the people's representatives--those of us in the Senate--have an opportunity to scrutinize an individual who has been nominated for the Federal bench in a lifetime appointment. So that scrutiny is appropriate. I am hopeful that this scrutiny and this discussion will be of a civil nature. Sometimes it has not been, over the last several years in this body. I do believe, though, that all nominees who are reported out of a committee, whether the Judiciary Committee--for that matter, any committee--Foreign Relations, or other committees, ought to be accorded the fairness of an up-or-down vote at the end of this gauntlet. If you are going to make someone go through all of this, have all these slings and arrows, some relevant, some tangential, and some completely irrelevant. If they are going to go through all of this, they ought to be accorded the fairness of an up-or-down vote.…”