Voting in favor would put senators in a better position to oppose later or a vote in opposition would put the president on notice that he better put somebody up who was acceptable to a...

The sooner we get into a hearing room where there’s a stenographer and public record, the better off the process is,

The president’s [fiscal year] ’07 budget proposal is going to require substantial modifications by the Congress.

I think that it is more reason to question him closely at the hearing.

Because of enormous public importance of the upcoming mayoral election, the Department of Justice should release all information concerning the issue related to the bugging of Mayor Street’s office, so long as no potential defendant’s...

American credibility in the war on terrorism depends on a strong stand against all terrorist acts, whether committed by foe or friend.

I must say I am not pleased to have to arrange the Senate schedule around the availability of Senators who are running for President.

I think that … Senator Helms may really make a martyr out of Bill Weld here, … Evans and Novak.

I am committed to conducting a full, fair and dignified hearing.

In the context where the Supreme Court decides, really, the cutting-edge questions of our day

I’ll have greater confidence in your telling me I’m wrong when you have all the facts,

I’m going to listen to what he says and I’m going to respond to it the best I can,

What you’ve had here . . . is not a rush to judgment — it’s a stampede to judgment,

I’d like the specifics in writing, focusing on why the people whose information was breached couldn’t have been notified earlier. Those people are all at risk, and you have a duty to notify them at...

The Senate and the Judiciary Committee can accomplish more in three cooperative hours than in three days or three weeks of disharmonious activity,

You have both sides poles apart and insistent on finding some answer to that question in advance of the hearing, which no one is entitled to, … Late Edition.

I believe there is substantial doubt as to how he would apply fundamental principles of constitutional law.

When the attorney general says the force resolution gives the president the power to conduct these surveillances, I have grave doubts about that.

We’re not going to start these hearings until you’re prepared. And she said November 7th she’d be ready to go.

There is no firmly established rule as to how much a nominee must say to be confirmed, … While I personally consider it inappropriate to ask a nominee how he would vote on a specific...

No one wants to back down and no one wants to lose face,

open and honest public conversation with the nominee…is an important part of this process.

I would hope that the chief justice would work for consensus,

When you talk about judges who would change the right of a woman to choose, who’d overturn Roe versus Wade, I think that is unlikely, … And I have said that bluntly during the course...

It’s pretty hard to have a trial without witnesses and if you have just (a) hearsay report, you do not have the circumstances, you do not have the flavor, you do not have really the...

No senator that I have talked to has come down and made up his or her mind.

I’d forgotten about it. That was yesterday,

The lack of carbon monoxide discloses only that there was no fire long enough to have gotten into the respiratory systems of the people who were so tested, … It doesn’t say anything else.

I found it was easier to get out of bed than to stay in bed, so I got out of bed and went about my business,

When you have a decision which has been in effect for decades and people have come to rely upon it,

That looks to me as if it may be obstruction of the committee’s activities.

[But Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), a member of Hatch’s committee, took issue with that view.] I rechecked the Constitution. I do not believe that ignoring a subpoena would be grounds for impeachment, … Late Edition.

The story contained some allegations that I think require investigation,

We have a major, major problem on our hands, … It is a matter of very, very substantial urgency.

Terrorism remains the No. 1 problem in the United States today. It is not a matter of attaching blame, it is a matter of correcting any errors so that we don’t have a repetition of...

We are not going to budge, it is our prerogative on the power of the purse and we’re not going to yield on that point. So there is a stalemate, … We proposed to send...

Do you regard the evolution of various interpretations on liberty as a living thing, as Justice Harlan did, and as Justice Rehnquist appeared to on the Miranda issue?

There isn’t anything we could have done that we haven’t done, … It’s been a real 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year effort. So you don’t see me perspiring today, and you don’t see me tense.

There is a keen interest in many quarters on concluding before Thanksgiving , and that’s a fine target if it can be accomplished, … But we’re going to do it right. We’re not going to...

As the president ponders the nominee to replace Sandra Day O’Connor, it is my hope that there will be a balance maintained on the court.

She’s not a showoff or a grandstander.

We have done more than cut the fat. We have done more than cut through the muscle. We have done more than cut through to the bone. We have cut into the marrow. It is...

a very heavy commitment to legal interpretation which might differ from his own personal views.

I can understand that Trent is anxious. So am I. But when you take a look at the particulars, all the delays that Ken Starr has faced, I think he has to be given more...

great deal more contentious.

He has picked a candidate and our job is to determine not whether she’s the best qualified, but whether she’s qualified.

Was the Vietnam conflict a war which should have, as a matter of constitutional law, required a declaration of war by Congress?

But I don’t believe in a quota system, and it may be that at this particular time, President Bush would like to have someone other than a woman, and I don’t think his hands ought...

ill-suited to capture the nuance of oral arguments and the sustained attention of the American citizenry.

There has been a generalization that justices like to retire at the end of a term so as not to disrupt the work of the court, … if you were to have a 4-4 court,...