Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague for being with me for this colloquy. I appreciate so much the legislative experience Senator Fischer brings to this body. It is very extensive. She was regarded as the leader in the Nebraska unicameral and chaired an extremely important committee. She would be too modest to point this out, but at the time when our road system needed funding, she figured out a way not only to identify funding--and not by raising taxes but by better efficiency and better management, and it was a significant amount of funding--but she then built the coalitions necessary to actually get that passed. Back home, today, that is getting rave reviews. So I thank her for that because I drive on those roads and I know she does too. My colleague mentioned the Defense bill, and nothing could be a better example of what we are dealing with here. This bill came out of the Armed Services Committee, which has a reputation for being one of the most bipartisan committees in the whole Senate system. It is not about Republicans and Democrats on that committee, for a whole host of reasons. One is there is just great leadership on that committee, and there has been great leadership in the past, but the focus is on the national defense of our United States and our allies. For 50-some years we have passed a Defense authorization bill. It is one of the things, even when nothing else could get done, that we would get done. The hallmark of that is that it is a very open process.…”