Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I thank my colleague and our ranking member on the Judiciary Committee not only for his friendship and his articulateness but his great work on this issue. Just as the President has a constitutional responsibility to name a nominee to the Court, the Senate has its constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on the nominee. It is our job. It is the job of this body and specifically the Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on that nominee. This chart says, ``America to Senate Republicans: Do your job.'' Today we might be saying, ``America to the Judiciary Committee: Do your job.'' The American people expect us to do our job in the Senate and in the committees and do what we are supposed to be doing. As my colleague from Vermont has noted, the Judiciary Committee should be meeting right now at this moment, as we do every Thursday. This would have been the first opportunity for all members of this committee to debate in public the Republican chairman's unilateral decision to issue a blanket hold on an unnamed Supreme Court nominee. We hold Judiciary meetings on Thursday all the time while legislation is being debated on the floor. There were no votes scheduled. We meet every Thursday. We know why they are not meeting today. They are afraid to discuss the issue. They cannot win the argument that we shouldn't be doing our job in a public debate. They can't win the argument that the Judiciary Committee shouldn't be holding hearings.…”