Political Quotes

“I wish to speak on the nomination of Judge Beverly Baldwin Martin who President Obama nominated to the Eleventh Circuit on June 19. I remain at a loss as to why it has taken this long for her nomination to come before the full Senate for a vote. Judge Martin's nomination is one of the few that has had strong bipartisan support. Both of her home State Senators, Senator Chambliss and Senator Isakson, have expressed their support for the President's nominee from the beginning. I have also expressed my support for Judge Martin and I believe she will be easily confirmed when the vote occurs. As I have said many times, Republicans have been and are ready and willing to proceed to a roll call vote on her nomination for months but, for whatever reason, our Democratic colleagues, the leadership, would not take yes for an answer. Instead, they chose to force votes on controversial nominees such as David Hamilton and Andre Davis. Given those nominees' records, it was no secret they would engender opposition and that it would take some time for their records to be examined and to be prepared for debate. I do not know the reasons for not calling up Judge Martin's nomination sooner. I hope it wasn't to purposely delay this noncontroversial nomination in order to create an illusion that a lot of judges are being obstructed.”