George Voinovich: “today I rise to talk about this body's treatment of President Bush's judicial nominations. This is not the first time I…”

“today I rise to talk about this body's treatment of President Bush's judicial nominations. This is not the first time I have been forced to come to the floor to protest this treatment, but I hope it will be the last. Over the past few years we have seen highly qualified nominees wait sometimes two years before their nomination reaches the floor of the Senate, only to see their records and reputations vilified for political purposes in the interim or to watch as cloture vote after cloture vote fails. And where has this filibustering and posturing gotten us? I want to underscore that one might question spending 30 hours on the issue of the Democrats using the filibuster to frustrate the Senate's right to advice and consent on presidential nominees, but we would not be here today if my colleagues across the aisle had not created a constitutional crisis with their use of the filibuster--and have now driven us--in order to protect the Constitution to consider changing the cloture rules of the Senate. Beyond the constitutional crisis, there is a diminishing of the third branch of Government, the Judiciary, at the hands of the legislative branch that has serious implications for the people of the United States. We have 12 judicial emergencies on the circuit courts of appeal. The President has done his job, nominating new judges for 11 of the 12 appellate court vacancies. But the Senate has not done its job in confirming these judges.”