Political Quotes

“of the initial Bush nominees, the 10 or 11 we are talking about today, 8 have been confirmed; only 3 were not. Of course, one of those, Miguel Estrada, has not been renominated. Another, Terrence Boyle, has never been reported by the Judiciary Committee, even after 4 years of Republican control. So only one of the initial nominees, Priscilla Owen, is currently on the calendar. I think the Democrats have been responsible and reasonable in exercising advice and consent regarding this initial nominee. Regarding Priscilla Owen, she served on the Texas Supreme Court with the President's lawyer, Alberto Gonzales, who is now the Attorney General. Judge Gonzales wrote that several of Judge Owen's opinions were acts of unconscionable activism. I am concerned the Senate is heading toward an unnecessary showdown over judicial nominations. One of the Hill newspapers recently reported that my distinguished friend, the majority leader, is under enormous pressure from right-wing groups to trigger the so-called nuclear option. So many of our colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, have contacted me and, I am sure, the majority leader, saying: Let's try to work something out. They want to avert this damaging confrontation because it would be bad for the Senate and bad for the country. So we need to take every step we can to avoid this confrontation. We are prepared to be reasonable even with respect to these controversial nominations that are now before the Senate.…”