Political Quotes

“Mr. President, last night the Senate voted to end the Republican filibuster of this outstanding nominee. For the 28th time since President Obama was elected, the majority leader was forced to file cloture to get an up-or-down vote on one of President Obama's judicial nominations. Justice Hurwitz is not a nominee who should have been filibustered. With the support of Senator Kyl, the partisan effort to stall yet another judicial nomination was defeated. I thank Senator Kyl and the Republican Senators who had the good sense to agree to proceed to an up-or-down vote on this nomination. By any traditional measure, Justice Hurwitz is the kind of judicial nominee who should have been confirmed easily by an overwhelming, bipartisan majority. Justice Hurwitz has served for 9 years on the Arizona Supreme Court and had a distinguished legal career. He has the support of his home state Senators, both conservative Republicans. He was unanimously rated well qualified by the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. And he was nominated to fill a longstanding judicial emergency vacancy on the overburdened Ninth Circuit after extensive consultation between the White House and the Arizona Senators. The campaign that was mounted by the extreme right against this outstanding nominee was wrong. I spoke against it yesterday, as did Senator Kyl and Senator Feinstein.…”