Political Quotes

“on another subject, it is extremely difficult to compare one Congress to another. Each Congress is unique-- changing times, shifting issues, and new administrations with which to work. But one manner of gauging the success of a Congress is simply to tally the number of Presidential nominees who have been confirmed. After all, offering its advice and consent on nominees is the Senate's constitutional duty. If we were to use confirmations as a measuring stick, by all accounts the majority leader and Senate Republicans are failing in a spectacular fashion. So far this year, the Senate has confirmed 21 nominees--4 months, 21 nominees. It is unheard of to have such a small, small number. If that trend continues, the Republican-led Congress will confirm 63 nominees this year, 2015. By contrast, in 2007, my first year as majority leader under the Bush administration, the Senate confirmed 276 executive and judicial nominees. It did not matter that Democrats were working with a Republican administration. My disagreements with President George W. Bush have been well documented. That is an understatement. But I worked with him on nominations because Democrats knew--and I knew--that it was only fair to give the President the team he needed to lead the country. Doesn't President Obama deserve the same? Of course he does. In 2007, each Democratic committee chair worked to move President Bush's nominees through committees and the Senate floor in a reasonable amount of time.…”