Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this good man, Sri Srinivasan, was first nominated in June of 2012. He is a brilliant man. He is an honors graduate from Stanford Law School. Justice Roberts left that court in 2005. We have been trying to fill spots on that court for all of these many years--6 or 7 years. The DC Circuit is the court that some say is more important than the Supreme Court. No judge has been confirmed in the DC Circuit since 2006. It is an 11-member court established by law, so to have a 7-member court is unfair. We have had one woman, for example, Caitlin Halligan, a highly qualified nominee, who has been filibustered twice by the Republicans. She was nominated to fill the seat of Justice Roberts. The man we are talking about today has been nominated to a seat that has been vacant for 5 years. The four seats were vacated in 2005, 2008 and have senior status by two other judges in the last year or two. His nomination has pending for 345 days. That is by far the longest wait of any of the judicial nominations currently awaiting confirmation by the full Senate. My friend the Republican leader talks about Bush's second term and how he didn't get many nominations. He didn't get many nominations at that time because we approved so many in the first term. It is just the opposite with President Obama. Eighteen Bush circuit court nominees were confirmed within 7 days or less after being reported by the committee.…”