[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 26 (Monday, February 25, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S805-S806]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BACHARACH CONFIRMATION
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I am very pleased that we have just
confirmed Judge Bacharach. He is going to make a great Federal judge. I
have just been real pleased, I have to admit; I was literally running
from the airport to get here because they had plane troubles, and I saw
Senator Pryor was in the same situation. So let me, first of all, thank
the leadership for holding that vote open so I would not find myself in
the embarrassing position of not voting to confirm my best friend from
Oklahoma. So we are in that situation.
Let me just say that I am very proud of him. He actually started on
the Tenth Circuit as a clerk. So he really knows this stuff. He has
been there for a long time. As part of his profile, as a future goal,
he intended to improve. He has actually made that statement. I believe
``always working to improve'' has been a defining characteristic of
Judge Bacharach's career.
He graduated in the top 4 percent of his class in law school. He
received all kinds of academic awards and maintained memberships in the
highest orders of law school students. He began his legal scholarship
on Law Review and has continued writing in a number of law journals.
As I said, he actually started in the Tenth Circuit working as a law
clerk for the chief judge. So he knows that circuit. I do not think
there is anyone out there who would know it better.
Judge Bacharach has multiple years of litigation experience working
for the firm Crowe and Dunlevy in Oklahoma City and in public service
as a Federal magistrate for the U.S. District Court in the Western
District of Oklahoma. As evidence of his career of distinction, when
Judge Bacharach was chosen to be a magistrate judge from a pool of many
well-qualified candidates, the chief judge characterized the decision
as ``an easy one.''
Since that time his colleagues have characterized his service as
remarkable, demonstrating superb judicial temperament, and being a real
asset to the Western District family and the
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legal community. As with any position in the judicial branch that comes
with a lifetime appointment, the Senate must deliberate carefully; and
we did and gave all the thought to this nominee, as was shown, clearly
demonstrated by a unanimous vote for confirmation. You do not see this
very often, but you saw it with Judge Bacharach.
So I appreciate the opportunity to support him today and to have been
able to call and be the first to congratulate him in this new part of
his career, of which we are going to be very proud. I can assure the
Presiding Officer and all the rest of us this is a guy of whom we will
always be proud.
So I say congratulations to Judge Bacharach. You are going to do a
great job. We will depend on that, and we will be watching to make sure
that happens.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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