J. Exon: “I was rather disappointed in the votes we just had. We just had two controversial nominations: One, Mr. Greenspan and…”

“I was rather disappointed in the votes we just had. We just had two controversial nominations: One, Mr. Greenspan and one, Ms. Rivlin. I was very pleased to see, although the Greenspan nomination was controversial, it had a strong bipartisan flavor of support on a vote of 91 to 7. Frankly, I was quite disappointed at the lack of similar consideration for the other nomination that some people thought was controversial with regard to Ms. Rivlin. We all know Alice Rivlin and have known her for a very, very long time. Frankly, I was discouraged that the bipartisan spirit that has to be part of the Federal Reserve Board was not accepted nearly as handily as was the Greenspan nomination. Ms. Rivlin was confirmed by a vote of 57 for and 41 against. I thank those few Members on the Republican side of the aisle who at least, in this instance, showed the same bipartisan support that those of us on this side of the aisle showed for Mr. Greenspan. Frankly, I was quite disappointed and, I think, this is a point in the Senate that should be raised. There must be sometime when we can lay partisanship aside and recognize and realize that we have a two-party system that still is designed to function here.”