Political Quotes

“Madam President, today we consider the nomination of Brian Davis to be a District Court Judge for the Middle District of Florida. I will vote for him today (although there has been some controversy surrounding his nomination). I wish to take a minute to discuss the nomination. Judge Davis made a number of controversial remarks a few years ago. During his hearing last Congress, Judge Davis was asked to provide some clarification regarding those comments. After carefully reviewing his answers from the hearing, many of us concluded that they didn't provide the clarity that we had hoped he would provide. For that reason, following his hearing, I asked Judge Davis some follow-up questions for the Record, hoping to get the clarity, in writing, that I didn't hear him provide during his hearing. Unfortunately, after reviewing his written answers, I concluded that Judge Davis didn't fully appreciate why many found his comments so troubling. For instance, when I asked him about these statements he wrote that a ``number of my statements could be misunderstood'', but he neither apologized for them nor said anything to demonstrate that he fully appreciated why his comments were so problematic. As a result, in the last Congress I reluctantly opposed his nomination. Judge Davis, of course, was renominated this Congress. On September 12th, he submitted a letter to the Florida Senators. In that letter, Judge Davis apologized for his comments--without qualification.…”