Amy Klobuchar: “I have seen what is going on here. We get these nominations through our committee, and then they vanish into thin air.…”

“I have seen what is going on here. We get these nominations through our committee, and then they vanish into thin air. You can look at the numbers with what is going on here. You have a situation where President Bush had 100 circuit and district court confirmations during the first 2 years of his Presidency. To date, President Obama has only 18. There are literally dozens of nominees waiting. Why does this matter? This is about a drug dealer who doesn't get prosecuted, someone who is running a drug ring, because there is not a judge to bring the case in front of. I was a prosecutor running an office of 400 people, and I saw what would happen if we didn't have judges. It is also about a felon in possession of a gun, and they can't bring up his case because they have a heavy docket of criminal, civil, and corporate cases, and because of this you cannot get criminals off the street. Or this is about complicated white-collar crimes such as the one with Bernie Madoff. If we don't have the judges to handle these things, criminals will be out there committing crimes.”