Political Quotes

“I wish to state just briefly that I strongly support the pending nomination. This is an outstanding person, an outstanding jurist, an outstanding judge, and someone who will serve with distinction on the Federal court. Now, an argument has been made about the President appointing people who are soft on crime. That is a popular political slogan. Someone is soft on crime. What does that mean? Are we supposed to believe that someone who is serving as a judge tolerates crime, condones crime, likes crime? The answer is, of course, ``no'' to all of those. What it does do is to create what I believe to be a false impression, that somehow in America if you believe in the Constitution, if you believe in the Bill of Rights, and if you believe in the rights of individual freedom and the limitations on the power of the government, you are somehow soft on crime. Mr. President, I served as a prosecutor at the State level and at the Federal level, and I daresay I am probably responsible for more criminals going to prison than most other Senators and, perhaps, all combined. And I say to you that here in America we can enforce the law and we can be tough on criminals without ignoring constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans. It is a false choice to suggest that adherence to, commitment to, and a deep conviction in favor of the Bill of Rights, which preserves the liberties of individual Americans and limits the power of Government, somehow makes one soft on crime.”