Dear members:

 

Congratulations, Judge Alito is confirmed to be our next Justice of the Supreme Court!

 

Please let me take this opportunity to thank you for your contribution to this process. It is hard work like yours that truly makes a difference in the political process. 

 

You all willingly called your Senators, wrote letters to your local newspapers, called talk radio and discussed this issue with family and friends in order to garner support - and for that, I THANK YOU!

 

Sincerely,

 

Beverly Davis 

President

National Federation of Republican Women

 

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                            Bob Stevenson (202) 224-4445

January 31, 2005                                                                                  Amy Call (202) 224-1865

 

FRIST HAILS CONFIRMATION VOTE FOR JUDGE ALITO

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D. (R-TN) today made the following statement on the Senate floor prior to the Senate’s confirmation vote of Judge Samuel Alito:

 

“Today’s vote proves that the Senate can hold a free, dignified and thorough debate on judicial nominees, while still fulfilling the Senate’s constitutional responsibility to give nominees fair up-or-down votes on the Senate floor.   In every respect, Judge Alito is a nominee who meets the highest standards of excellence and I congratulate him on this most deserved achievement.

 

“I hope the senate builds off today’s bipartisan momentum and continues to temper partisan rhetoric, summon civility and its members commit themselves to genuinely addressing the issues that matter to the American people.”

 

 

 

            The following is a copy of the floor statement Frist delivered prior to today’s vote on Judge Alito:

 

Mr. President, at the end of a debate in the Senate, there’s rarely a question of whether everything has been said, only whether every Senator has said it.

 

After 92 days since this nomination was announced, after 30 hours of Judiciary Committee hearings, after Judge Alito answered more than 650 questions, and after 5 days of debate here on the Senate floor – there is little left to be said.

 

So I will be brief.

 

To President Bush, I say:  “thank you” for nominating such an exceptionally qualified individual as Sam Alito to serve on the Supreme Court.

 

To my Senate colleagues, I say:  “well done” to the supermajority of Senators who joined together yesterday to elevate principle above partisan politics and defeat an unjustified filibuster of this nomination.

 

And to Judge Alito, I say:  you deserve a seat on the Supreme Court.

 

Today, you will become the 110^th Justice to serve on the Court throughout America’s history.  It is a seat that is reserved for few -- but that impacts millions.

 

May the Constitution and the rule of law be the light that illuminates each case that comes before you.

 

So now, we will momentarily vote from our desks, our time-honored tradition that demonstrates once again how important and consequential every member takes his duty, under the Constitution, to provide advice and consent on a Supreme Court nomination, and to give the nominee the fair, up-or-down vote he deserves.

 

Now, Mr. President, it is time to call the roll.  So there’s only one thing left to say:  I ask for the yeas and nays on the nomination of Samuel Alito to serve as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

 

-30-

                                                                                                                                                 06-34