Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it is unfortunate that we have to be on the Senate floor this afternoon to talk about so many of the nominees we need to do the work of this country who are being held up, and being held up by people who are not willing to identify themselves or say what their issue is with these nominees. I am pleased to join my colleagues. I am glad we are mounting this effort. We need to get rid of the secret holds. But it is unfortunate that we are where we are. I understand why people are frustrated with what is happening here. People want to see things get done. They understand we have significant challenges facing the country, and they want to see action on those challenges. It is clear that one of the areas where there is a problem is with the 80 or so people who were nominated who have been held up, some of them for months and months, because somebody has an issue, not with the person who is being held up usually, but as my colleague from Missouri said because someone wants to get the attention of a department or agency within government or because somebody wants to keep the Obama administration from doing the work of the people. I wish to point out some of the people who have been on hold. No one has identified themselves as to why they had these people on hold. Until just a few minutes ago, we had five U.S. attorneys and five marshals. We have the Deputy Director of National Drug Policy Control.…”