Bob Menendez: “I rise in support of the nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit of a distinguished…”

“I rise in support of the nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit of a distinguished jurist from New Jersey, Judge Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr., which seems to be blocked by some people in this Chamber yet unknown. I know it is not from my side of the aisle because I have checked. So it is on the Republican side of the aisle. Yet Judge Greenaway fully embodies the respect for justice and the rule of law that we demand of all of our judges. He has strong bipartisan support, and his nomination could easily have been taken care of this evening but for a few Republicans blocking the vote. I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle: End the obstructionism. Do what is right. Let us have a vote on this eminently qualified, noncontroversial nominee. It is clear the obstruction of this nomination is not about this nominee. He is eminently qualified. I will talk about that in a moment. And it is not about what is right for this Nation. It certainly is not about acting in the best interests of a badly overburdened Federal judicial system. In fact, oddly enough, it is not about ideology. It is not even about Judge Greenaway or the other seven nominees whom our friends are delaying. It is about the politics of having this President and this Congress fail, the politics of no, the politics of obstruction, of stopping any progress on any issue and almost every nominee.”