Russ Feingold: “I will vote no on cloture because I believe that the committee rules were violated in reporting the nomination to the…”

“I will vote no on cloture because I believe that the committee rules were violated in reporting the nomination to the floor and that, before the Senate acts on this nomination, more investigation is needed of Mr. Pryor's involvement with the Republican Attorneys General Association and the truthfulness of his testimony on that topic. We faced a similar procedural problem early this year in the committee. I thought we had reached a resolution of that dispute. A number of us lifted our objection to proceeding with floor votes on John Roberts and Justice Deborah Cook after we received assurances that the committee's rule IV would be reinstated and abided by from that time forward. That agreement was put to the test during consideration of the Pryor nomination, and I'm sorry to say that the Committee failed that test. Just as we did in connection with the Roberts and Cook nominations in late February, in July, Democrats on the committee invoked rule IV and asked that a vote on the Pryor nomination not be taken. But once again, the rule was violated.”