Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I just wish to say a few words about the vote we are about to take and about this process. I do not favor this agreement. I have indicated I would vote against it. I would like to get to a final vote on the subject and not just have endless cloture votes. It has been offered on the Democratic side that we would go to a final vote if the margin was set at 60. We have a 60-vote threshold. I say take it. Let's get to a final vote. We have seen the end of this movie already. The President has the sufficient votes to sustain the veto. Therefore, this would simply be an exercise to send something to the President that he would veto and then have that veto sustained. I see no value in doing that. There is no value to our allies to see that there is a split in Congress or between Congress and the Executive on this issue. The President is in his last term, he is not hurt politically by this, and there is no reason to do that. So I don't know why in the world we want to go through that exercise or insist on going through that exercise simply to force cloture. I would like to send the disapproval motion to the President--that would be fine--but to not get to a final vote because we are insisting on doing that seems to me misguided. Let's agree and go to a final vote and set it at a 60-vote threshold. That would be fine. We know the end of this movie already.…”