Political Quotes

“when I hear concerns that the Republican delays are all the fault of President Obama, it sort of makes me think of some of the dialogue from the movie ``Casablanca''. I should tell my colleagues that there are 83 vacancies, sure. Several of them are without a nomination because this President is trying to work with home State Senators, including 24 vacancies involving a Republican home State Senator who hasn't agreed to anybody. There are seven nominations on which the Senate Judiciary Committee cannot proceed because Republican Senators haven't returned blue slips indicating their support. We had somebody else who we were going to consider in Committee. Two Republican Senators had returned blue slips; they withdrew them and we had to take that name off the agenda. So we try to protect Republicans' rights in the committee and, suddenly, we are at fault because they are blocking people who have gone through unanimously. Well, none of these complaints would give any excuse for failure to move on nominees that went through with every single Republican, every single Democrat voting for them. Instead of being voted on in a week, as 57 did during President Bush's first term, these nominees sit here for month after month after month.”