Political Quotes

“I want to make sure I thank Senator Murkowski and Senator Begich. When I started this, Senator Begich was my first cosponsor and Senator Murkowski made this bipartisan. I think the important thing was that we could have done it permanently and I just don't want that lost. We could have done it permanently, and we didn't, and that is sad. There are reasons for that. I wasn't born yesterday, as most of you can tell. I know why it wasn't done. People are going to use this as the little engine that could to drive some other stuff behind it which is not good stuff. I want to see that we can protect our small boats, and I am going to continue to do that. I hope we will work together as we move forward in this new Senate, run by--in the case of the committee I proudly chair--Senator Inhofe, who I think will be very good on this issue; Senator Thune, who we know is good on this issue. So we have the pieces in place. And whatever objections there were, I don't think they are really objections to the permanency, they are political objections to try and use this to get some other bad stuff attached to it, and I am not going to let that happen, let me tell you right now, no way, no how. So whatever someone has in their mind that they are going to connect to this little baby, it isn't going to happen, because we can't do that. We can't take one good thing and destroy it. I am not going to let that happen. Right now we have a 3-year deal put in place. We can breathe easy.…”