Political Quotes

“as we finished the vote just hours ago, I could not help but notice a number of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle high-fiving each other. That image stays with me as I stand here now. It saddens me. There is no cause for celebration in what happened in the Senate just hours ago. No one should sleep well tonight. No one should underestimate the magnitude of what happened here. Damage was done to our democracy, in fact, to the institutions that are the pillars of our democracy--the United States Supreme Court and the Senate itself. Today is, indeed, one of my saddest days in the Senate. Sadder than anything is the damage that has been caused to the Supreme Court by eroding and undermining trust and respect for an institution that has power only because of its credibility with the American people. It has no armies or police force; all it really has is the confidence and respect of the American people. Today, raw political power has been exercised to break the rules and norms of this body so that a nominee could be confirmed. The only way that he could be confirmed was, in fact, to wreck the rules, a nuclear option that will have enduring fallout and rippling repercussions, perhaps for years come. For myself, I would state unequivocally that I hope we will work together on issues where we have common ground, where we can reach common solutions on infrastructure, on tax reform, on immigration issues.…”