Political Quotes

“I wonder if Senator Chambliss might stay for 1 second so I can inform my Republican colleagues, in about 10 minutes I will be asking unanimous consent to confirm a general who has been nominated--a brigadier general who has been nominated to be a major general, who has been stuck on this calendar since October because of the objection of Senator Vitter, who is not hiding that it is totally unrelated to the merits of this general. He acknowledges that. Senator Vitter has acknowledged that his problem is with the Corps of Engineers. This is a Corps of Engineers that has nothing to do with the projects Senator Vitter is trying to get funded. The Corps of Engineers has said it is illegal to proceed. They have written him back. The hold still stands. This is a uniformed officer of the U.S. Government. As chairman of the Armed Services Committee, I feel obligated--and the reason I interrupted your mission, forgive me, is because it is a Senate Armed Services Committee matter, where we have unanimously approved him 6 months ago or 5 months ago to be a major general. I want to put folks on notice. I will be making a unanimous consent request in about 10 minutes that this matter be taken off the calendar and that it be confirmed. I wanted, as a courtesy, to make sure folks on that side of the aisle knew. I thank my dear friend from Michigan, my colleague, Senator Stabenow, for yielding me this time.…”