Political Quotes

“some remarks were made by the majority leader last night that I think need to be countered. I will take a moment to respond to some of the statements he made last evening. Last night, some members of the majority accused the Republican side of the aisle of attempting to filibuster the energy bill. Nothing could be further from the truth. Since the debate on this issue began, we have disposed of 49 amendments, 21 offered by Republicans and 27 offered by the Democratic side. Countless other amendments have been worked out off the floor with the majority, and I compliment the majority leader and the chairman, Senator Bingaman, as well as the staffs who have been working on these amendments. Prior to the recess, the cloakroom asked for a potential list of amendments from each side of the aisle. There were fewer than 50 amendments on the Republican side and over double that amount on the Democratic side. Republican amendments were all energy related; Democratic amendments included Medicaid and voting rights. Over the recess, this side of the aisle worked to pare down its list of amendments and is reducing it dramatically to a realistic number of only a handful which should require votes. As I understand, there are nearly 85 to 95 amendments on the Democratic side of the aisle. The only filibuster I know of is on the other side of the aisle, being pledged by Senator Lieberman and Senator Kerry.”