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[Pages S2751-S2752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NOMINATIONS
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Senate has continued to make
significant progress in the personnel business. After 2 years of
systematic heel-dragging from our friends across the aisle, even on the
least controversial nominations, the modest reform the Senate adopted
last month is helping us to get back on track.
Another slate of capable nominees is now on its way to work for the
American people. They are precisely the same sort of unobjectionable
sub-Cabinet nominees who, until very recently, would have been
subjected to 30 hours of debate. They would have tied up the floor for
days before being confirmed anyway. They are perfect examples of why
the Senate returned to our longstanding norms of processing lower level
nominations. Now the American people are getting the government they
elected at a more reasonable pace.
To be clear, the silly partisan games haven't all been cleared away
from our work on nominations. For example, just yesterday, we confirmed
Judge Joseph Bianco to serve on the Second Circuit by a relatively
close vote of 54 to 42. Remember, for a judge, in the scope of Senate
history, that counts as a close shave. So are we looking at a
controversial person? Are we looking at an individual whom the Senators
agonized over and painstakingly studied?
Judge Bianco brings a unanimous ``well-qualified'' rating from the
ABA, and he has already served as a judge for 13 years in the Eastern
District of New York. Oh, by the way, he was confirmed to that position
by a voice vote. In fact, back then in 2005, one of Mr. Bianco's most
vocal supporters in the Senate was none other than our friend the
Democratic leader. Here is how he praised his New Yorker to the
Judiciary Committee in 2005.
Senator Schumer said: ``I am proud to support someone as
outstandingly qualified and well respected as Mr. Bianco.''
Well, that was then and this is now.
The nominee is the same. Actually, he is not quite the same because
now he has been a very highly regarded district judge for 13 years, so
this nominee is actually even better. Yet the occupant of the White
House is different. In this political moment, as we know, my Democratic
colleagues' commitment to the ``outrage industrial complex'' seems to
crowd out reasonable judgment.
So now, this week, the Democratic leader lumped the same individual
he used to champion into what he described as ``hard-right nominees.''
Then the Democratic leader and almost every other Member of his
conference proceeded to vote against him. He voted against the same
nominee he praised in such generous terms before.
I can only conclude that now the ``outrage industrial complex'' comes
first, not the facts, not the nominee's qualifications. The ``outrage
industrial complex'' comes first. The individual whom the Democratic
leader used to champion and who passed by a voice vote in 2005 now
receives this partisan treatment. What was once a routine matter for
acclamation becomes a party-line vote just because this President is
the one who nominated him.
Look, fortunately, at the end of the day, the outcome is the same.
Judge Joseph Bianco, along with a slate of other well-qualified
nominees, is now on the job, and the Republicans will
[[Page S2752]]
continue our work to give the people the government they chose, the
government they deserve.
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