Political Quotes

“Mr. President, regaining my time on this side, I appreciate the Senator from Missouri speaking about Brian Wimes. Today, the Senate will finally vote on the nomination of Brian Wimes to fill a judicial vacancy in the U.S. District Court for the Western and Eastern Districts of Missouri. This nomination has had the support of both his home state Senators, Senator McCaskill and Senator Blunt. The Judiciary Committee voted to report the nomination favorably over four months ago. There is no justification for this unnecessary delay. The Senate is still so far this year only considering judicial nominations that could and should have been confirmed last year. We will conclude the first four months of this year having only considered judicial nominees who should have been confirmed before recessing last December. We have yet to get to any of the nominees we should be considering this year because of Republican objections to proceeding more promptly. With nearly one in 10 judgeships across the Nation vacant, the judicial vacancy rate remains nearly twice what it was at this point in the first term of President George W. Bush when we lowered vacancy rates more than twice as quickly. The Senate is 33 confirmations of circuit and district court judges behind the number at this point in President Bush's fourth year in office. We are also 66 confirmations from the total of 205 that we reached by the end of President Bush's fourth year.…”