Political Quotes

“Today the Senate will vote on the nomination of Paula Xinis to be a judge for the District of Maryland. I will support that nomination. Mr. President, I come to the floor at this time to also talk about judges generally. I have been hearing the usual complaints from Members of the minority party regarding the pace of judicial nominations. I would urge my colleagues to step back and look at the bigger picture. The relevant number to consider is the number of confirmations during an entire Presidency. At this point in his Presidency, President George W. Bush had 303 judicial nominees confirmed. After tonight's vote, so far in his Presidency, President Obama will have 325 confirmed. Those are 22 more nominees than Bush had. So as we continue to hear complaints about how many judges are being confirmed, we should put these complaints in context. The simple fact is, President Obama has had quite a few more nominees confirmed than President Bush did. Further, I would note that as chairman, after this Wednesday, I will have held hearings for the same number of nominees this Congress has had as the last chairman of the committee did to this point during the last 2 years of President Bush's Presidency. At this point in the 2008 Congress--that would be the 110th Congress--the former chairman held hearings on 43 nominees. At the end of May of this year, we will have held hearings on 43 nominees thus far in the 114th Congress. I yield back all remaining time. The PRESIDING OFFICER.…”