Political Quotes

“I stand today in opposition to this illegitimate motion to discharge the nomination of Vanita Gupta to become the Associate Attorney General of the United States. I say that this motion to discharge is illegitimate because it was-- because the Senate Judiciary Committee and its chairman decided unilaterally to ram through a vote on Ms. Gupta in violation of the rules and precedents of the Senate Judiciary Committee. As has been the longstanding tradition in the Judiciary Committee, members were debating the nomination of Vanita Gupta and expected that everyone would be given the opportunity to speak. But in the middle of a speech being delivered by one of the Judiciary Committee's members, Senator Cotton from Arkansas, the chairman of the committee, Senator Durbin, cut him off and unilaterally proceeded to a vote, effectively nuking the committee rules that should have allowed Senator Cotton and others to speak. Never, in the more than 10 years that I have served on the Judiciary Committee, have I seen a chairman of that committee so blatantly, brazenly violate rule and principle and precedent in this way. This behavior is not only unusual, but it is inexcusable. Lengthy debate in committee markups is actually much more common than some in this Chamber might have you believe.…”