Political Quotes

“I want to associate myself with the remarks from my distinguished colleague and close personal friend, Senator Crapo, and join him in urging our fellow Senators to quickly confirm Judge Nye. As pointed out by Senator Crapo, this will be the first district judge to be confirmed by this Congress. So it should be an honor for Judge Nye, and I am sure he views it that way. This has been, literally, years in the making. As Senator Crapo pointed out, we have only one active Federal judge right now, and he is handling what is essentially a three-judge load. Some time ago, when this vacancy occurred, Senator Crapo and I went to work on this. Most Americans don't understand how this works, but to become a U.S. district judge, it takes essentially the concurrence of three people-- that is, the President of the United States and the two Senators from that particular State, be they two Republicans, two Democrats, or one of each--because we have what is called a blue slip process, where if any one of the three can and do object to a person, then that person will not be permitted to go forward. In this particular case, we negotiated with the Obama White House for literally months and months, and it turned into years. I believe we acted in good faith on both sides in trying to find a person who would be the right fit for Idaho.…”