John Cornyn: “just a few moments ago, we all learned, through the miracle of modern technology, that the President intends to announce…”

“just a few moments ago, we all learned, through the miracle of modern technology, that the President intends to announce his Supreme Court nominee tonight at 9 p.m. when he addresses the Nation. This is certainly the culmination of an unprecedented consultative process that this President has undertaken with the Senate, spending more than 2 weeks now, I believe, reaching out to Senators on both sides of the aisle, asking for their suggestions. Now, the President believes that it is appropriate for him to name the successor to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court. It is my hope that tonight's announcement will be met with some restraint on the part of the Members of the Senate, that we will hold our fire, and that we will not prejudge this nominee or seek to use this as an opportunity to perhaps disparage the nominee before we have had a chance to ask questions, before the nominee has had a chance to meet with Members, and before we have had a chance to conduct a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as we will surely do either in late August or early September. We can do better in the Senate than we have done in the recent past when it comes to judicial nominations. I think we have shown that we can conduct ourselves with dignity and civility, even as we have disagreed.…”