Political Quotes

“I will be using some leader time. For my colleagues, the vote will be in about 10 minutes or so. In a few moments the Senate will decide whether to invoke cloture to close debate on the nomination of Sam Alito to be the 110th Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Before we vote, I want to take a minute to reflect just a bit on the progress that we have made in this overall judicial confirmation process over the last 12 months. In the Senate, I really wear three hats. One is the Senator from the great State of Tennessee; second, the Republican leader; and third, majority leader. Wearing the third hat as majority leader, I have become a steward of our institution, steward in the sense of its rules and its precedents, its practices and the customs of this Senate. My job is to bring Senators together, both sides of the aisle, to govern. That is why we are here, to govern with meaningful solutions to people's real problems, problems today, problems in the future, to identify what those problems are and then to resolve them and to secure America's future by honoring its past and by building on a record of accomplishment every day as we move forward. Three years ago, when I assumed this position as majority leader, there was probably no single greater challenge or obstacle than the judicial confirmation process. In a word, it was broken.…”