Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I wish to honor Joe Biden, the 47th Vice President of the United States. After I came to the Senate in 1992--known as ``the Year of the Woman''--then-Senator Joe Biden invited me to lunch at his office in the Russell Senate Office Building. We sat at small table in his elegant office and discussed the importance of having a woman on the Judiciary Committee, of which he was chairman at the time. This was in the wake of the Anita Hill hearings, and there were no women on the committee. It was a real honor when Joe Biden asked me to join. He then asked Senator Carol Moseley Braun to join, giving the committee two women for the first time. Serving on the committee with him, I noticed immediately that he had a commanding presence. As I watched him chair the committee, I was impressed by the passion he displayed while working to slow the drug trade, protect women from domestic violence, and help advocate for a ban on assault weapons. These were issues that I, along with millions of other Americans, felt strongly about, and we had a champion in Joe Biden. During discussions about a proposed crime bill in 1993, I told Joe I was working on an assault weapons ban. This was in the wake of a mass shooting in San Francisco that shocked me. I told Joe we had at least 48 votes and I wanted to introduce it as an amendment to the crime bill. He laughed--a big raucous laugh--and said, ``Well, you're just a freshman.…”