On the recordJuly 29, 2010
I appreciate my colleague from Colorado raising these issues. The Senate does have a responsibility to treat nominees fairly. I have worked to do that as ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, and they are entitled to be considered on the floor. But things don't always go as smoothly as you would like. I will make a couple of points that are very important. President Obama's nominees are moving considerably faster--to both circuit and district courts--than President Bush's nominees, many of whom were subjected to incredibly unjustified actions to obstruct their nominations. My good friend, the Senator from Delaware, says we should use the Golden Rule. I would say that is always a good policy. I am pleased that nominees are moving faster than President Bush's nominees were moved. But if we ask for parity, consistency, and if we ask for fairness, based on what was done to President Bush's nominees, they would be held considerably longer, and a lot of nominees would never even get a hearing, and they would wait for years. I want to mention a few facts about these matters. President Obama's circuit court nominees have waited for a hearing only 59 days, on average. President Bush's nominees waited, on average, 176 days to even have a hearing in the committee. Actually that was in his first Congress, and the Republicans had a majority at that time. But they had to wait 247 days to get a hearing for his entire Presidency.
