Political Quotes

“let me pick up from where the distinguished Senator from Oklahoma ended. This Senate and the House are capable of doing some awfully good bipartisan work that helps the American people, and we do a lot of it. The Senator from Louisiana--the Presiding Officer today--has been working with the Senator from Connecticut, a Democrat. They have different political persuasions, and they have us very close to passing a very important mental health bill in the Senate--one that passed the House yesterday. They have worked hard on that. We are going to get that done this year. I would like to do it next week, but if not, we should be able to do it in September. Earlier today, I went to the National Education Association annual convention, where there were 10,000 teachers from all over the country, and they gave the Friend of the NEA Award to Senator Murray of Washington State and to me. Thirty years ago, when I was Governor of Tennessee, I would have gotten the ``public enemy of the NEA'' award. But what they like and what teachers and Governors and chief State school officers and parents like was that last year we came together and fixed No Child Left Behind. We stopped Washington from telling schools so much about what to do and restored that responsibility where it ought to be--with teachers and parents and Governors and legislators. We have been thanked for that because it affects 50 million children and 3\1/2\ million teachers and 100,000 public schools.…”