Political Quotes

“Madam President, I have sought recognition to comment on the range of questions for Solicitor General Kagan on her forthcoming hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Solicitor General Kagan has issued a fairly broad invitation, in effect, on questioning. In an article that she published in the Chicago Law Review back in 1995, her comment at that time was, in part, as follows: When the Senate ceases to engage nominees in meaningful discussion of legal issues, the confirmation process takes on an air of vacuity . . . and the Senate becomes incapable of either properly evaluating nominees or appropriately educating the public. For nominees, the safest and surest route to the prize lay in alternating platitudinous statements and judicial silence. Who would have done anything different in the absence of pressure from Members of Congress? That is a fair-sized invitation for a little pressure from Members of the Senate. I think she is right in her pronouncements, and it is something we ought to do. She goes on to write in the law review article: Chairman Biden and Senator Specter, in particular, expressed impatience with the game as played. Specter warned that the Judiciary Committee one day would ``rear up on its hind legs'' and reject a nominee who refused to answer questions. Senators do not insist that any nominee reveal what kind of a Justice she would make by disclosing her views on important legal issues.…”