Political Quotes

“I stayed so that I could respond to not just the words but the spirit and the tone of the remarks of the Senator from Connecticut. He and Senator Shelby, and their committee, are in the best position to help make sure we do our job between now and the upcoming recess, and on behalf of the Republican leader, I wish to say that is our goal. Looking back just to the end of last year, this Senate was able to take up an energy bill, have a principled debate--including an argument about taxes--and come to a result. And we took a step--increasing fuel efficiency standards for the first time in 30 years--that, according to a top expert at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will do more than anything else Congress could do to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Then we took up the economic stimulus legislation, and it was a smaller package than almost any of us would have preferred, because we had different points of view, but we agreed on it. We had a vote that kept out $40 billion in additional spending which that side wanted and this side largely didn't, but we came to a result, and the President signed it into law. We did the same thing on intelligence, with a very difficult issue, liberty versus security, and how do we balance that. We had a Rockefeller-Bond proposal on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that finally got 68 votes, and we sent it to the House. That is three straight. Now here comes housing. There is no reason we can't have a result here.”