Political Quotes

“I was trying to get down here when Senator Harkin was completing his remarks, to join him, because I am as concerned as he is about the impact of these nominations that still remain on our Executive Calendar here at the Senate. This publication comes out on a daily basis to tell us which nominations have been sent to the floor of the Senate by the committees. They do not reach the floor of the Senate until a process is followed which involves nomination by the President of the United States, an investigation of the nominee by agencies of the government and by our committees, and then consideration of those nominees. Many committees have hearings where the nominees are called before them. Questions can be asked. They certainly are in the Judiciary Committee where I serve. Then, at the end of the day the committee decides whether to submit this nominee's name for the consideration of the full Senate. So the fact that Senator Harkin came to the floor this evening is an indication of the frustration many of us feel about what has happened. So far since President Obama took office last year, the Senate has had rollcall votes on 51 nominations. There are others who have been approved without rollcalls. But of those 51 nominations which were subjected to rollcall votes, 22 were confirmed with more than 90 votes and 18 were confirmed with 70 votes or more. That means that almost 80 percent of those nominees have passed with overwhelming support.…”