Political Quotes

“I ask the Senator this basic question because there are some trying to follow this debate. Being lawyers and having been on Capitol Hill for a while working in this environment, we have a tendency to speak in terms that perhaps the average person may not understand. I want the Senator from New York to help me come to the basic question about why any average person following debate on the floor of the Senate in America should even care about the compliance with rules because I think the Senator has made this point. The Senator said that now, with the new Republican majority in the Senate, with the Miguel Estrada nomination, they are violating the traditions of the Senate in terms of questions to be asked for those seeking lifetime appointments to the Federal judiciary. The chairman, Orrin Hatch of Utah, of the Judiciary Committee has now said he is going to change the way Senators from a given State can approve of the nominees before they come up for consideration before the committee.”