Jim Inhofe: “I would like to say we made it very clear to this President on two of the recesses since that time, that if he did not…”

“I would like to say we made it very clear to this President on two of the recesses since that time, that if he did not live up to the standards as were put in the letter by Ronald Reagan and to which he agreed, that we would put holds on all these nominations. Obviously, I had holds on these nominations. I have to admit it was not the Democrats; Republicans were not a lot of help to me at that time. They voted and overruled the hold that I had. I would say the Senators who voted with me at that time to uphold the Constitution were Senators Shelby, Murkowski, Allard, Craig, Crapo, Grassley, McConnell, Bunning, Grams of Minnesota, Burns, Smith of New Hampshire, Gregg, Domenici, Helms--as I said, Inhofe--Thurmond, Gramm of Texas, Thomas, and Enzi. In spite of the fact that that happened, they went ahead, the President went ahead and has continued to make recess appointments. The last time he did was during our August recess between the 3rd and 31st. He granted 17 recess appointments in just an arrogant defiance of the Senate's prerogative of advice and consent for confirmation purposes. Even though it is kind of an empty threat now, I will do it --I am announcing tonight I am going to put a hold on all judicial nominations for the rest of his term, not that there are that many, because if we stopped right now, there would still be fewer vacancies than were there at the end of the Bush administration.”