Political Quotes

“I have waited to give this speech for weeks, waited for the rhetoric to die down after the untimely and unexpected passing of Justice Scalia, and waited to speak about the sad state of affairs out of a hope that no more words would be necessary before this Senate acted. It was my fervent hope that the initial reaction to Justice Scalia's death was due to the shock and the grief at the loss of a conservative icon. I, like many of my colleagues, were publicly mourning the loss, and I assumed that my colleagues were simultaneously realizing that after decades of trending to the right, it was now more than likely that the Supreme Court was going to shift back to a more centrist, progressive point of view. But now it appears that the Senate has descended into an ``Alice in Wonderland'' world where the Senate cannot even agree on how many Supreme Court Justices make the Court functional. Throughout our history, in the Senate there have been previous attempts to attack the Court by, on the one hand, denying it members, or, on the other hand, packing the Court. In those instances, this once august body has stood together and always protected the sanctity of the Court--but not today. The Senate is not only displaying contempt for the Court, but it is demonstrating contempt of its constitutional responsibilities.…”