Political Quotes

“I rise today to express deep disappointment about what is taking place on the Senate floor in the cloture vote scheduled for tomorrow. For the past 3 rac{1}{2} years, Senator Levin and I have been urging the Bush administration to work with us to develop a bipartisan solution regarding the Michigan nominees to the Sixth Circuit Court. We have met on several occasions with Judge Gonzales, the current White House counsel, and other White House staff, but the White House has rejected all of our efforts at a compromise. We also had numerous meetings with Chairman Hatch and testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee several times on the need for a bipartisan solution. Chairman Hatch had expressed a willingness to work with us and to work with Senator Leahy on a bipartisan solution to this impasse, but it seems these efforts have been abandoned by Republican leadership in favor of scoring political points before the party conventions. I still believe the best way to end this impasse is to forge a compromise. I hope the Bush administration and the Republican leadership will not continue down this road of what appears to be politically motivated and partisan cloture votes instead of working with us to develop a fair solution. A "nay" vote on cloture will preserve potential negotiations toward the bipartisan compromise we have been seeking. A "yea" vote will destroy these efforts and, unfortunately, be a vote for preconvention politics.”