Political Quotes

“I rise today to call on each of us to take seriously one of our most important duties as Senators--our constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on Presidential appointments to the Supreme Court. As we all know, over the last 3 years, the longstanding tradition of building bipartisan consensus in the Senate around nominees to our highest Court was flown into the ash heap of history. The majority leader and Senate Republicans completely dismantled the rules that made advice and consent real in the Senate--all to steal a Supreme Court nominee from our last President. By making nominations to the highest Court--perhaps the most consequential votes we take as Senators-- subject to only a simple-majority vote, Republicans rigged the system to make it possible for the most extreme nominees to make it all the way to the Bench. Before they broke the rules, requiring 60 votes ensured that both parties would have a real seat at the table and that mainstream nominees would be nominated and confirmed with the advice and consent of the Senate. Now we have been told that we must accept the resulting new normal of a politicalized and completely partisan selection process to fill any new vacant seat on the Court. I, for one, refuse to legitimize this broken process. Under these broken rules, the minority party--even in as closely divided a Senate as we currently have today--has effectively zero ability to say: Wait. Hold up.…”