On the recordFebruary 2, 2017
Mr. President, I want to take a few minutes to comment on some of the initial reactions that I have heard from my Democratic colleagues on the President's nomination of Judge Gorsuch to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. First of all, even before we had the nominee, there were many of the Democratic Members vowing to filibuster the nominee, site unseen. That, of course, is very unfortunate, as well as being ridiculous--in other words, saying you are going to filibuster somebody before you even know who the nominee is. But of course, given how the minority has treated the President's Cabinet nominees so far, it is not exactly surprising that they would say this before the President even nominated somebody for the Court. Then, of course, this week the President announced his nominee. Judge Gorsuch, of course, was confirmed by the Senate in 2006 without a single ``no'' vote and is universally respected as one of the finest and most fairminded judges in the country. In fact--get this--one of President Obama's Solicitors General called him ``one of the most thoughtful and brilliant judges to have served our Nation over the last century.'' Now, if an Obama Solicitor General says that and that is not mainstream enough, I don't know what is. After the President's announcement, something very interesting happened. Right out of the gate, there were a number of Senate Democrats calling for ``a hearing and a vote.'' Well, that certainly sounds very encouraging.…





