President Obama on energy, war and a bipartisan White House meeting

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/07/president-obama-bipartisan-congress-leaders.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-after-bipartisan-leadership-meeting

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. I just concluded a productive discussion with the leaders of both parties in Congress.

This was one of a series of regular meetings that I called for in the State of the Union because I think it’s important for us to come together and speak frankly about the challenges we face and to work through areas where we don’t agree; hopefully find some areas where we do.

Our conversation today focused on an issue that’s being discussed every day at kitchen tables across this country -- and that’s how do we create jobs that people need to support their families.

I believe that starts with doing everything we can to support small businesses. These are the stores, the restaurants, the start-ups and other companies that create two out of every three new jobs in this country -- and that grow into the big businesses that transform industries, here in America and around the world.

(snip)
Finally, during our meeting today, I urged Senator McConnell and others in the Senate to work with us to fill the vacancies that continue to plague our judiciary. Right now, we’ve got nominees who’ve been waiting up to eight months to be confirmed as judges. Most of these folks were voted out of committee unanimously, or nearly unanimously, by both Democrats and Republicans. Both Democrats and Republicans agreed that they were qualified to serve. Nevertheless, some in the minority have used parliamentary procedures time and again to deny them a vote in the full Senate.