Lawrence O'Donnell Quotes

He addressed a black lawyer as "boy". That's why Jeff Sessions couldn't get through Senate confirmation process under the old rules followed by Democrats and Republicans.

The question for the Republicans running the confirmation hearings in the United States Senate is whose rules are they going to use?

The president-elect Donald Trump moved a bit closer to getting his Cabinet in place with another round of confirmation hearings. The most contentious was for his treasury secretary pick, Steven Mnuchin, a billionaire banker who worked at Goldman Sachs and owned a hedge fund. There was important news that came out during the hearing. Mnuchin said that he would support raising the debt ceiling sooner rather than later, and not risk the country defaulting.

Thank God she doesn't have to be confirmed by the Senate.(on the birth of his granddaughter)

Jeff Sessions, the person who's likely to become our next attorney general, is striking a very different tone from our current attorney general, Loretta Lynch, who announced a consent decree with the city of Baltimore.

In pre-Trump Washington where the old rules applied, Rudy Giuliani could never survive the Senate confirmation process.

Jeff Sessions is the lone voice in the Senate.

Senator Jeff Sessions is reportedly on the [Donald] Trump shortlist to be either the next Secretary of Defense or the next Attorney General of the United States.

I have been immeasurably honored to serve the people of Maine for nearly 40 years in public office and for the past 17 years in the United States Senate. It was incredibly difficult to decide that I would not seek a fourth term in the Senate.

I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America's future here in the trenches of the United States Senate.

There is no Senate rule governing the proper uses of the filibuster.

It used to be in the Senate that if you were filibustering, you stood up. There was a physical dimension to it, that you - when you became exhausted you would have to leave the floor. That was the idea of the filibuster.

There is no government in Europe where ministers go through that kind of confirmation process, which in fact is modeled on the way the U.S. cabinet members are confirmed.

The Democrats filibustered something in the Senate when I was eight years old. I don't remember what it was on and I didn't honestly care when I was eight years old. I cared about the history and the Senate rules.

For a long time in American history, people didn't even come up before the Senate. They didn't come before the Judiciary Committee, and up until about 1923, something like that.

For most governors, we find the United States Senate or the United States Congress very frustrating at the slow pace in which they act. There doesn't seem to be a lot of discipline and organization to what they do.

It costs about $27 million to win a seat in the United States Senate, so when you win one, you like to sit down.

I was only one-half the appointing power. I nominated, but the Senate confirmed.

Whenever anyone complains about the confirmation process, it means their guy is getting roughed up.

The role of the nominee in the confirmation process is like that of the bridegroom. Stay out of the way and be on time.

The Capitol

For roughly two hundred years, politics has influenced dramatically the nomination and confirmation of Supreme Court justices. Presidents routinely have selected nominees to the Court based on political considerations…

The most important rule for a nominee in a confirmation hearing is the 80/20 rule. If they are talking 80% of the time and you are talking 20%, you’re winning. If its 60/40, it means you are arguing. If it is 50/50, it means you have lost and you’d better throw in the towel.

I will not vote in favor of Senator Sessions' nomination for attorney general.

Alaskans deserve a fighter in the United States Senate who will always stand up for Alaska, who understands our great potential, who has the experience, respect and seniority to accomplish that. I am that senator.