Political Quotes

“as the majority leader indicated, we have done really a good job of approving the nominations of the new President. By tomorrow afternoon, 12 of the 13--I think that is the right number--will have been approved. Anyway, all but one will have been approved. While the Senator from Vermont is on the floor, I extend to him the appreciation of the entire Democratic caucus for the way the hearings have been conducted. First, as Senator Leahy was chairman of the committee, and then following that, working as the ranking member, this is a lot of heavy lifting. I talked to someone today, and they asked me: Why is it taking so long? I indicated that it is taking a long time because--let's assume Vice President Gore had been elected President, and I just pick a name. Let's assume Senator Kennedy had been selected to be the Attorney General for the United States rather than John Ashcroft, two people who have served this Senate on different sides of the political spectrum. I think the Republicans would have taken a lot of time to go over all the things Senator Kennedy had said in speeches and things he had said on the Senate floor. That is what we are doing. We are looking at the record of the designate for Attorney General, what he said when he was attorney general, what he did when he was attorney general, what he did when he was Governor, and what he did in the Senate. I extend my appreciation to the Senator from Vermont for the job that has been done.”