Senate confirmation process Quotes

The Supreme Court nominations [example]. I mean, the fact that Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republicans, was able to just stop a nomination almost a year before the next election and really not pay a political price for it, that's a sign that the incentives for politicians in this town to be so sharply partisan have gotten so outta hand that we're weakening ourselves.

If you go back and look at the history of Supreme Court fights from the very beginning there is a corresponding interest, and and the intent of the interest of the Senate with, as it relates to the probability that the next appointee would alter the balance in the court.

Senate has to advise and consent. That doesn't mean you have to vote yes; you can vote no. It's not a rubber stamp. But what these guys are doing is, "Wait a minute, we don't have to vote yes or no, and maybe we can trick our voters into not holding us accountable for not voting yes or no."

How Obama approaches judicial selection - and how Republicans respond - now becomes an important story and will remain so until the Senate shuts down judicial confirmations, probably in the summer of 2016 if Senate custom in presidential-election years is followed.

If Democrats get another Elena Kagan, who has no business being there, if they get another Senorita Sonia Sotomayor, if they get another Stephen Breyer, who may be one of the absolute worst, Ruth "Buzzi" Ginsburg, if they get another one of these, then we don't have a Supreme Court, folks.

I would never filibuster any President’s judicial nominee, period. I might vote against them, but I will always see they came to a vote.

Even before the hearings that led to confirmation of Chief Justice Roberts, senators were saying they were reserving judgment on how they would vote until they got to know him better at the hearings.

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.

I'm so beautifully represented, so honored the Senate approved Rex Tillerson . He's going to be fantastic.

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

According to the old rules, Senator Jeff Sessions could not be confirmed by the United States Senate because in fact he wasn't.

I want to remind all Americans that the Senate has a very important responsibility to confirm only well- qualified individuals who will faithfully interpret the law and the Constitution.