Senate Proceeding on Mar 12th, 2009 :: 1:24:35 to 1:36:25
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1:24:31 to 1:24:51( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: show that we know how to do the right thing. i yield the floor. ms. klobuchar: mr. pre the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota is

1:24:35 to 1:36:25( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Amy Klobuchar

1:24:52 to 1:25:13( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: recognized. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, thank you very much. i first want to acknowledge the great leadership of chairman leahy and his work in getting this very important nomination to the floor of the united states senate. mr. president, i rise in support of david ogden to be the next deputy attorney general of the united states of america.

1:25:14 to 1:25:34( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: when i drove into work today, mr. president, i heard on the gnaws about new developments in the madoff case, about how some people had thought $50 billion had been lost in lo to investors, lost to people who had nothing lost to so many charities and charitable organizations in this country who during this difficult time are trying to

1:25:35 to 1:25:56( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: help people in need. they thought it was $50 billion. but now it looks it's $65 billion. $65 billion lost because of man, one man, who committed such fraud -- one man. that's what's going on in this country today. $65 billion somehow went through the fingers of the securities

1:25:57 to 1:26:17( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: and exchange commission and now it's being prosecuted, prosecuted under the juris jurisdiction of the justice department of the united states. look at the other things going on in this country, mr. president. you have got billions of dollars coming out of investment, very important investment in infrastructure and broadband, in jobs, in new energy in this country.

1:26:18 to 1:26:38( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: but it's an unprecedented investment in this country. some $800 billion going out there. and you've got the funds that are being used to help some of the credit markets get going again. well, we all know when you put money like that out on the street, when you put money like that out on the market, there's going be peopl do bad things.

1:26:39 to 1:27:00( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: there are going to be people who try to steal that we need a justice department that's going to hold these people accountable who are getting the money. we need a justice department that's fully functioning, that's going to watch over the taxpayers' money, that's going to make sure people like madoff get prosecuted. that's what we need in this country. and when you see a difficult economic crime -- time that we

1:27:01 to 1:27:21( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: are in and you see economic times with people without jobs, people who are no surprise an increase in crimes when you have difficult economic times. when we see -- well, we see that happening today. so you look at all those factors. going out on the street.

1:27:22 to 1:27:44( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: the discovery of who've been ripping people off for so long that only when economic times get bad do you actually see there's embezzlement going on and then the natural contrary, is a sat and unfortunate increase in crime when you're in difficult economic all those going on. that is why i say, mr. president, that we need a fully

1:27:45 to 1:28:05( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: department, and that means we need a deputy attorney general for that justice yesterday at our judiciary committee, the chairman himself said, eric holder, the attorney general, is all alone up there. he it's time to move these nominees.

1:28:06 to 1:28:26( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: and that's why i question why wanting to delay this process, would be wanting to not put someone who is clearly qualified to do this job into the justice department. we need to fill this post right now, and i have full confidence that david ogden is the right man at the right time. why do i know that? as i said yesterday, we had a

1:28:27 to 1:28:47( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: great attorney generals office in minnesota for years and years and years under both republican and democratic administrations. and then someth attorney, a friend of mine who is the u.s. attorney under george bush quun and george bush two. when he left he found his name was on a list to be fired.

1:28:48 to 1:29:08( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: he was replaced by someone who didn't have management experience. that office nearly blue up over a two-yea up with one person in charge. now under attorney general mukasey, i saw first hand when you put someone in that isn't necessarily qualied for that job, when you putomeone in

1:29:09 to 1:29:29( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: that isn't putting the interests of the state first, i can see what happened. and so eric holder and his deputies and that's that work for him he a big job on their hands, mr. president. they not only have this rise in white-collar crime and these enormous issues to deal with, they also have a morale issue in the justice department and no one, no one, no one says that's

1:29:30 to 1:29:51( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: not true. the way you fix morale in an institution as big as the justice department is you put nem place that have the respect of those that are going to be -- that are working for them. look at the numbers. the department of justice has more than 100,000 employees and a everyingle federal law enforcement officer reports to the

1:29:52 to 1:30:13( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: the nomination we're considering today, including the f.b.i., including the drug enforcement administration, including the bureau of prisons, and all 93 u.s. attorneys' offices in this country. so what do we have in david ogden? someone with broad experience. went to harvard law school.

1:30:14 to 1:30:34( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: clerked for justice harry blackmun, i add, a minnesotan. he has been in both the public sector as a key person in the justice department under attorney general reno. he is someone would also h had private sector experience. i someone haseen in government and they have had private sector experience representing private clients, as well.

1:30:35 to 1:30:55( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: he is an open minded and moderate lawyer with broad support from lawyers of all political philosophy. here you have someone with six years of leadership in a department when the department moral was good. we need to put him back in that department. now i mow that people on the --

1:30:56 to 1:31:16( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: i know that people on the other side have raised issues about client he had in the past. i can tell you a lawyer, and there are lawyers in this chamber, have, in fact, represented clients they may not agree with and they have to make sure the ethical rules are followed. as a prosecutor i chose to represent the state. but there was no one i admired

1:31:17 to 1:31:39( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: more than those defense lawyers who were representing people who were charged with crimes. i didn't choose to do that side. but many people did. and in our system in the united states of america when someone gets this trouble or someone needs a lawyer, that's your job as a lawyer. and i think if we use some kind of standard that we were going to throw people out of this

1:31:40 to 1:32:00( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: chamber, because of cliented they represented tha we didn't agree with or things they personally had done, it would be a very different chamber and i think that people should be very and decisions they make about reasons. they can oppose the nomination of someone if they want. but it better be for the right reasons.

1:32:01 to 1:32:23( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: i believe we have the right seasons. it is chief justice roberts and i know chairman leahy quoted this but it is very important to remember, chief justice roberts at his own confirmation hearing said -- quote -- "the principle that you don't identify the lawyer with the particular views of the client or the views that the lawyer advances on behalf of

1:32:24 to 1:32:44( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: a client is critical to the fair administration of j and he went on to say "it was my view that good lawyers can give advice and argue any side of a case. it has not been my general view that i sit in judgment on client i viewed that as a job of the

1:32:45 to 1:33:07( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: court when i was a and as someone said, this is chief justice roberts, it is the guilty people who reallyeed a good lawyer. i also have the view i don't evaluate whether i as a judge would agree with a particular position when someone comes to me for what i did which was provide legal advice and assistance. so that's what we're talking about here.

1:33:08 to 1:33:28( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: we have someone candidate who has broad support if people who have served in his role under both democratic and republican attorney generals, someone who has the of the fraternal order of police. the endorsement of the fra trnl

1:33:29 to 1:33:49( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: orde --fraternal order of police and from the center of missing is splitted children. while at the department of justice, david ogden led the gument's defense of various antipornography statues arguing against positions taken by of the people he had formally represented. for example, while at the civil division, he defended the child

1:33:50 to 1:34:11( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: online protection act of 1998 which aimed to protect children from internet by obscene material to restrict their sites from access by minors. under david ogden, the civil division defended that statute. while he was head of the civil right division he defended the

1:34:12 to 1:34:32( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: child pornography prevention act which expanded the ban on child pornography to cover virtual pornography. we had cases when i was a prosec children and would actually see their images on the intent, and would figure who they were and we had a case where we went

1:34:33 to 1:34:57( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: after someone who met the mall that he met on t internet. and then the police looked at the images that were on that gaguy's intnet site and traced it to another site who did in the know her picture was on the site.

1:34:58 to 1:35:22( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: explicit immanuals images produced without using real children, computer-generated immanuals. that is what david ogden did, he protected the statues and defended the statutes and he will continue to do that at the department of justice. mr. president, this strong support for families and children is request david ogden received t

1:35:23 to 1:35:44( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: missing and splitted children' children's endorsement, the boys and girls club of america endorsement and because of his work with law enforcement, the great ternl -- the fraternal order of police. do you think the organizions

1:35:45 to 1:36:06( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: williwilly-nilly put their names on as endorsements? no, they with not put their name on anyone who did not consider the protection of children as one of their paramount goals. they know that. they know what i know. david ogden is a man integrity and commitment to the rule of law. he is someone who will work with

1:36:07 to 1:36:25( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: our attorney general, eric holder, to restore credibility to the justice department, to restore moral to make it the kind of place where lawyers and kids coming out of law school say, i want to go work for eric