Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise to join my colleague, Senator Whitehouse, in strongly supporting the nomination of Jack McConnell to be a United States district court judge for the District of Rhode Island. Indeed, as my colleague indicated, there is a big issue here beyond Mr. McConnell; which is whether we are going to institute a new threshold of cloture, which could be routinely applied to all district court judge nominees. As my colleague indicated, this is an extraordinary departure from the history of this Senate going back decades. We have long adhered to the tradition that local Senators and the local legal community and the local civic community are the best judges for a potential nominee, subject, obviously, to the President's action and, quite importantly, to the review by the American Bar Association and, quite importantly, the background checks of the FBI, and, quite importantly and very, very importantly, to the deliberations of the Judiciary Committee here in the Senate. This has been the process for both Republicans and Democrats. It has extended over decades, and it is something I hope we can respect today through our deliberations and the conclusion of these deliberations. Turning to Mr. McConnell, we are fortunate, I believe, to have an individual of his talent and his character. Jack is a graduate of Brown University and Case Western Reserve University Law School. He clerked for a justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court.…”