Political Quotes

“Madam President, next week we will mark the 3-year anniversary, for lack of a better word, of the massacre at Sandy Hook, CT. Senator Blumenthal will be joining me on the floor momentarily. I wanted to come to the floor to speak to our colleagues for a few moments about what this week will mean to us in Connecticut and the challenge it presents to all of us. I want to open by speaking about one of the young men who perished that day--a little first grader by the name of Daniel Barden. Daniel was a really, really special kid. I talk about him a lot when I am speaking on Sandy Hook because I have gotten to know his parents pretty well over the years, so I feel like I know Daniel pretty well. Now that I have a little 7-year-old first grader at home, too, I, frankly, feel closer than ever before to the families such as the Bardens who are still grieving. Daniel had this sense of uncanny empathy that, now as a father of a 7-year-old, I know is, frankly, not normally visited upon children that age. Daniel just loved helping people in big and small ways; he was so preternaturally outward in his sympathy for others. There is a story his dad likes to tell about the challenge of going to the supermarket with Daniel because when they would leave, Daniel always liked to hold the door open for his family. But then he wouldn't stop holding the door open because he wanted to hold it open for all of the rest of the people who were leaving the grocery store.…”