Political Quotes

“this says it all: The average time between nomination and confirmation for court of appeals judges this year has been approximately 100 days, which includes the delay and reorganization of the Senate and the wait for the ABA peer reviews, which cannot begin now until after the nomination. The average length of time between nomination and confirmation of those circuit court nominees approved during President Clinton's most recent term was 343 days. That is a year--average. Accordingly, even with all the delays caused by Republicans, this Senate is acting on court of appeals nominees, on average, 8 months faster than the Republican Senate acted on Clinton nominations during the last 4 years--when they acted at all. More than half--56 percent--of President Clinton's court of appeals nominations in 1999-2000 were not confirmed. More than one-fifth of President Clinton's judicial nominees--68--never got a committee hearing, and certainly not a committee vote from the Republican majority. No one on the Republican side has conceded that the Republican Senate did anything wrong over the last 6 years in its handling of the judicial nominations. I guess they accept 343 days as being fairly good. Chairman Leahy and the majority now are ahead of the pace of the Republican Senate--it is not even a close race--and we should not be criticized for doing far better than our predecessors.”