Ben Sasse: “I say thank you to my colleague for yielding to me a little bit out of line. I think one thing we don't do nearly a good…”

“I say thank you to my colleague for yielding to me a little bit out of line. I think one thing we don't do nearly a good enough job at around here--and not just in Washington, DC, but in schools across America--is reflect on the basic civics we have inherited and the constitutional structure of checks and balances and why we have a limited government. I think Judge Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court and, frankly, more narrowly, the media cycles of today, give us a special opportunity to pause and to do a little bit of civics again. Judge Gorsuch is tough, smart, fairminded, independent, and he is a person who has taken an oath of office to a Constitution of limits. That is exactly the sort of thing we should be affirming and celebrating around here. I think that everyone on both sides of the aisle in this body should be celebrating Judge Gorsuch and what he believes about a constitutional system that has limits. And defending your own branch--the Founders envisioned a world where these three branches would be jealous of their own prerogatives--defending your own branch is not to attack another branch. As I read the media reports this morning of who said what to whom and who shouted at whom and who argued about what, what if we just paused and reflected again on what it means to believe in a constitution that has three separate but equal branches that are supposed to check and balance one another?…”