Nomination of Gregory Kent Frizzell
NOMINATION OF GREGORY KENT FRIZZELL -- (Senate - February 01, 2007)
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JUDGE GREGORY KENT FRIZZELL
Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I come to the floor to follow up on the comments made by my senior Senator, Mr. Inhofe, from Oklahoma, on the qualifications of Judge Gregory Frizzell. He has enumerated many of those. This is a fine young man with impeccable character and integrity. He is a living example of a life of service, not just in what he does as a judge in Oklahoma, but what he does in his community in Oklahoma. It has been a real pleasure to get to know him, to also watch him as he went through the process of getting a unanimous vote out of the Judiciary Committee and having no significant questions raised about his judicial philosophy, integrity, character, background, or his qualifications.
So it is with a great deal of pleasure that I look forward to his vote today.
I might comment for a moment that he was capable of being confirmed in the last Congress, and there was no reason, no good reason why he wasn't, other than the answer: We are not going to approve any more judges in this Congress. That is the reason I was told by the now majority leader that he would not be approved. There is no question as to his qualifications, but it should remind us again of the dangers of partisanship for party instead of partisanship for our country and for future generations.
I am very thankful to the Judiciary Committee chairman, Patrick Leahy from Vermont, for the speed and quickness with which he has brought this to the floor. I thank him for that, and I look forward to working with him with the same speed on any other judges the President might bring up and that the committee would put out.
It is my hope we can get beyond partisanship on judiciary nominees and get to the business of filling the significant number of voids or vacancies that are out there today and that are limiting justice for people in this country. Justice delayed is justice denied. And a lack of available judges is denying justice to hundreds and thousands of Americans every day. So the chairman of the Judiciary Committee has my commitment as a member of the Judiciary Committee to help him in any way I can to move those.
It is a great honor that Greg Frizzell will sit as a Federal judge in the northern district of Oklahoma, and it is my hope we will see many like him fill the spots across this country.
With that, I yield the floor, Mr. President, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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