Political Quotes

“this morning, Senator Gordon Smith came to the floor. He is a close friend. He made a statement relative to something I said on the floor yesterday about the nomination of Priscilla Owen. I am flattered he was listening, or that someone was listening. I am afraid what he said about my remarks was not completely accurate. Senator Smith made the following statement: As I understood the assistant Democratic leader, he was saying that Judge Owen's membership in the Federalist Society should disqualify her. Well, this is about the nomination of Priscilla Owen from Texas. I made the point of how interesting it was that while very few lawyers in America belong to the Federalist Society--maybe 1 percent--it turns out that about a third of President Bush's nominees belong to this Federalist Society. I referred to it as the ``secret handshake'' at the White House and that, if you belong, you have a much better chance to become a judge. I also made a point of the fact that when we ask nominees what the Federalist Society is and why do you belong, we get the craziest answers you can imagine. There was a law professor from Georgetown, Viet Dinh, a nice man who worked for the Department of Justice, and I said to him, ``What is the Federalist Society? Why is it so many Bush nominees belong to it?'' ``Oh,'' he said, ``it is an excuse to have lunch in Chinatown once a month.…”