ConfirmThem

By DanCT Posted in Senate Rules — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

A wealth of great quotes from the Clinton years, compiled by Andrew Alexander a couple years ago:

"I simply ask the United States Senate to heed this plea, and vote on the highly qualified judicial nominees before you, up or down." ---President Clinton, 1998

"I have said on the floor, although we are different parties, I have agreed with Governor George Bush, who has said that in the Senate a nominee ought to get a vote, up or down, within 60 days." --Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

"Nominees deserve to be treated with dignity and dispatch--not delayed for two and three years. We are seeing outstanding nominees nitpicked and delayed to the point that good women and men are being deterred from seeking to serve as federal judges. Nominees practicing law see their work put on hold while they await the outcome of their nominations. Their families cannot plan." --Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

"...we should have up-or-down votes in the committee and on the floor." --Harry Reid (D-NV)

"A nominee is entitled to a vote. Vote them up; vote them down…It is our job to confirm these judges. If we don't like them, we can vote against them. That is the honest thing to do. " --Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

"It is true that some Senators have voiced concerns about these nominations. But that should not prevent a roll call vote which gives every Senator the opportunity to vote 'yes'' or 'no.'" --Teddy Kennedy (D-MA)

"I also respectfully suggest that everyone who is nominated is entitled to have a shot, to have a hearing and to have a shot to be heard on the floor and have a vote on the floor." --Joe Biden (D-DE)

"I thought that if the President nominated them, they had a fair hearing, and they were reported out, my only decision was whether or not they were qualified--not whether they were ideologically opposed to me or to how I feel or what I believe"--Tom Harkin (D-IA)

In the Clinton years, all the Senate Democrats were on the right side of the filibuster issue and most of the Republicans were too. (If there hadn't been many principled Republicans in the Senate then, filibustering would have been routine then as it is today because some GOP Senators were agitating for it). Has anything changed besides the party affiliation of the President?