Political Quotes

“I am happy to be able to follow the rank, partisan remarks of Mrs. Blackburn's, because I wanted to speak this morning on the subject of compromise. Compromise is not an easy subject to speak on because, of course, we all have it in our minds here that the right thing to do is to lead great ideological battles--to stand unbending by your principles, to stand up for what you think is right--and it is the right thing to do to stand up for what you think is right. Compromise is a hard thing to discuss because, of course, those on the fringes, those on the extreme--those who are unbending--will accuse us of not standing by our ideals if we compromise; but the fact is that most, if not all, of the accomplishments in the history of this country that have been achieved by the United States Congress have been achieved through compromise. Let's talk for a moment about one of the reasons I am happy to represent the State of Connecticut. The Congress in which Mrs. Blackburn and I serve--the very structure and architecture of that Congress--was formed by something known as the Connecticut Compromise of 1787, when Roger Sherman and a group of people who disagreed on stunning issues of the day--and some of the people who were disagreeing were inviting foreign powers in to stand with them--came together and said, Do you know what? We will have a bicameral legislature--a Senate and a House--that will balance the big States and the small States.…”