Dusty Johnson: “I rise today to express not just my profound disappointment but, very frankly, my contempt for the outrageous political…”

“I rise today to express not just my profound disappointment but, very frankly, my contempt for the outrageous political ploy the Senate Republican leadership is foisting upon this Senate and upon the American people. This is a monumental waste of time, every Member knows that, at a time when we have so much work to be done, to be wasting 30 hours--now, I understand, perhaps more than that--on a false, fabricated issue. On top of that, all of this, I am being told, is costing the taxpayers at least $100,000--taxpayer money for this political ploy to be brought to the floor. And as the media has said from all around the Nation, there is no judicial crisis in America at the Federal level. This is a fabricated crisis which, frankly, is a polite way of saying that what is being brought to the floor is a fake. It is phony. It is fabricated. At stake is not a principle; at stake is--let's face it-- money. What is at stake is the far radical right of the Republican coalition with their vision of an America with no Social Security and no Medicare, no Federal role in the schools, what have you, a radical vision that very few Americans share. They have let it be known to the Republican leadership of the Senate here that they are going to not be as generous with their political contributions if they do not see more noise and more combat on behalf of a tiny percentage of judges nominated by the President.”