Judicial Nominees
Floor Speech
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Mr. BENNET. Madam President, there is not a person in this Chamber, I guarantee you, who does not go home at the end of the week and hear from people of their State--Democrats, Republicans, or unaffiliated voters--``what in the world are you guys doing back there? What's with all the political games being played? Why can't people act in a bipartisan way?''
I think it is important to say that we are talking about a bunch of nominations that actually have broad bipartisan support. Most of them passed out of committee by voice vote--certainly on a bipartisan basis.
As the Senator from Virginia was saying, there is instance after instance where there has been delay, delay, delay, only to see somebody pass 97 to 0 or 98 to 0. That is not about partisanship or about Republican versus Democrat. To me, that is about Washington being completely out of touch with the real world. The real world doesn't act this way. They don't use rules to make excuses for not getting their work done. The real world doesn't say we are frightened to debate these issues. The real world doesn't take people who are qualified for their jobs and prepared to serve this country at an enormously difficult time in our history and say: Let's put it off until next week or the week after that or the week after that. Nobody here is saying we should not have a vote. Nobody here is saying we should not have a debate. We are saying that the American people deserve better than that. By the way, people may not know this. In this institution, it is actually possible to put a hold on somebody and not say who you are.
I say to the Senator from Virginia, as the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, how could you ever have gotten anything done if that were the case?
It is possible to put a hold on somebody in this institution and never explain why you did it. You do not know what the issue is. That is why we need to have this debate and move forward.
Everybody in this Chamber has an obligation, whether they are Democrat or Republican, to look at the merits of the nominees and to vote their conscience on those nominees. But the American people are enormously frustrated with the current state of affairs. They want an open and sensible conversation about the policy choices we face as a country, and I think they want an end to the political games.
It is important we are all here today. I hope there are others who will join us in the days ahead. I thank the Senator from Virginia for organizing this discussion.
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