[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 49 (Thursday, April 21, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S4046]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS

  Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I come to this Chamber this morning to 
make a few comments in response to my colleagues from Minnesota, South 
Dakota, and Louisiana, concerning the judicial nomination process.
  Let me say at the outset, I believe the work of this body and this 
Congress should be getting about the people's business. I believe this 
issue concerning the filibuster rule is something that is distracting 
this country and this Congress from doing what we should be working on.
  In the Washington Post this morning, the headline story talks about 
the economic worries of America. The first two paragraphs of the 
article in the Washington Post read as follows:

       Inflation and interest rates are rising, stock values have 
     plunged, a tank of gas induces sticker shock, and for nearly 
     a year, wages have failed to keep up with the cost of living.
       Yet in Washington, the political class has been consumed 
     with the death of a brain-damaged woman in Florida, the 
     ethics of the House majority leader, and the fate of the 
     Senate filibuster.

  I would submit that we as a body have a responsibility to address the 
issues the people of this country care about. Those issues are about 
passing a transportation bill for America. Those issues are about 
getting an energy bill passed for the people of America that helps us 
get rid of our overdependence on foreign oil. Those issues are about 
making sure we address the most crippling issue affecting America 
today--and that is business and people alike-- the issue of health 
care, which is bankrupting this country and many families throughout 
our States.

  We get into this discussion here about what is happening with respect 
to judges. The fact is, what the majority is attempting to do is to 
simply break the rules. They are simply attempting to break the rules 
because they have the power.
  Now, I live in an America that strongly supports the fact we have a 
power that was created by our Founding Fathers, distributed between the 
executive, with checks and balances, and the Congress, and different 
rules for the Senate. Part of that is assuring a guarantee when we make 
decisions for the American people, especially with respect to judges 
who have lifetime appointments, that we are appointing the very best 
people to those positions. The debate that is underway today concerning 
the so-called filibuster rule, from my point of view, is an effort to 
try to change the rules in midstream. It also is reflective of the 
abuse of power we see in Washington today. To be sure, when you look at 
the history of what has happened with judicial appointments in the last 
decade and a half or so, there have been 60 Democratic nominees from 
President Clinton who were rejected by this Senate. On the other hand, 
if you look at what has happened with President Bush's nominees, we 
have had over 96 percent of all of his appointees confirmed by the 
Senate.
  Now, under anybody's scorecard, if you get a 96-percent success rate, 
I think you have done pretty well. You can ask my daughters, who are 
stellar students in their school; getting a 96-percent grade is pretty 
good. That is a much higher rating for President Bush's appointees than 
we had for prior Presidents.
  So I would say this is not about these particular nominees. I have 
not yet taken my own position with respect to what I will do with these 
seven nominees. I will study their records, and I will make my decision 
based on those records. But, at the end of the day, this is whether we 
will uphold the cherished traditions of this Senate that have provided 
the kinds of checks and balances that have been important for this 
Senate to be able to function.
  In my view, those rules force us, as Republicans and Democrats, to 
come together to work through the issues that are most important for 
our country. I believe the way this issue has been presented to this 
body and to the American people has been destructive not only to this 
body but also destructive to the real agenda on which we as the elected 
representatives of the people should be working.
  That real agenda is about roads. It is about transportation. It is 
about energy. It is about health care. It is about the issues that 
affect every person every day. They are the kinds of issues that affect 
people when they get out of bed in the morning and wonder what is going 
to happen to their families, their children, and their parents. Those 
are the kinds of issues we should be working on as opposed to working 
on these kinds of very divisive issues.

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