Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise in opposition to any motion to invoke cloture on nominees to the DC Circuit. I am somewhat disappointed that the Senate majority wants to turn to a very controversial nomination next rather than to continue on a path of cooperative confirmations or other important Senate business. It seems to me that scheduling such a controversial vote in the closing weeks of this session of Congress is designed simply to heat up the partisanship of judicial nominations. My opposition is based on a number of factors. First, an objective review of the court's workload makes clear that the workload simply does not justify adding additional judges, particularly when additional judgeships cost approximately $1 million-- $1 million--every year per judge. Second, given that the caseload does not justify additional judges, you have to ask why the President would push so hard to fill these seats. It appears clear that the President wishes to add additional judges to this court in order to change judicial outcomes. Third, the court is currently comprised of four active judges appointed by a Republican President and four active judges appointed by a Democratic President. There is no reason to upset the current makeup of the court, particularly when the reason for doing so appears to be ideologically driven. I will start by providing my colleagues with a little bit of history regarding this particular seat on the DC Circuit.…”