Political Quotes

“I join with my colleagues acknowledging the remarks of the senior Senator from Louisiana earlier on the floor today. You know, it has been said you really never know a person until you have walked in his footsteps. As the incoming chairman of the Energy Committee, I take my first steps, Bennett Johnston, with great humility. I have observed, as a member of the minority, the manner in which you have conducted the affairs of the Energy Committee. You have always been an extraordinary legislator. You have been a consensus builder. You have had the capability to tackle the tough jobs and get the job done. You have always had the energy and the commitment to move ahead, yet somehow you genuinely accorded each member an opportunity to be heard and most of us an opportunity to exhaust our thoughts on the subject, and then you moved ahead with an agenda as you saw it. I know every Member who has worked with the Senator from Louisiana respects him. The Senator from Louisiana has tackled the national issues. As the Senator from Arkansas indicated, occasionally the Senator has been partisan, but the Senator has been partisan in a way that I think represented the reality that the Senator's party was in the majority. Yet the Senator from Louisiana was always willing to listen to the input from the minority. The Senator was a fighter for the State of Louisiana.”