Political Quotes

“I listened very carefully to the majority leader this morning. What he said was confirming nominees should be the norm, not the exception--confirming nominees should be the norm, not the exception. Well, I would ask, respectfully, that the majority leader take a look at actually the record because you cannot ignore the facts. Of the 1,564 nominations that President Obama has sent to the Senate, only 4 have been rejected--4 of 1,564. During the first 2 years of the President's first term in office--the 111th Congress--the Senate confirmed 9,020 nominees and rejected 1. In the second portion of that first term--which was the 112th Congress--the Senate confirmed 574 nominees and rejected just 2. Now, during the 113th Congress, the Senate has confirmed 66 nominees and rejected just 1. In terms of Cabinet nominees--and we heard the majority leader speak of that--the Congressional Research Service shows that President Obama's nominees have waited an average of 51 days. That is shorter than for President George W. Bush and shorter than the time under President Clinton. When you take a look at judges--and the majority leader talked about that--the Democrats should remember the Senate has already confirmed more judges this year so far than were confirmed in the entire first year of President Bush's second term. When you go over this item by item, detail by detail, what you see is that confirming nominees is the norm, not the exception.…”