Political Quotes

“I have waited patiently now--as has the Senator from Illinois, Senator Carol Moseley-Braun--I have waited since November 1997 for the Senate to take up consideration of two Federal District Court Judges of Illinois. Patrick Murphy of Marion, IL, is a nominee for the southern district; Michael McCuskey, now an appellate court judge at the State level, is our nominee for the central district. We have waited patiently for over 100 days while these names languished on the Senate Executive Calendar. During that period of time, other judges' names have come and gone, been approved by the Senate, but the two nominees from Illinois sit and languish. It is bad enough that these two gentlemen, for whom there has been no negative comment, no suggestion that they are not qualified--it is bad enough that their lives have been interrupted because of the Senate's failure to act. What is even worse is that for the people they would serve in southern and central Illinois, there are vacancies on the Federal bench. The southern district of Illinois has the third oldest judicial vacancy in the Nation. We have seen over 1,900 days have passed since there was a judge in this seat, more than 1,000 days in the central district.”