Political Quotes

“my mom has an expression: Out of every tragedy, something good will come if you look hard enough. I know the Presiding Officer, if he will forgive this point of personal reference, has had his share of personal tragedy. Everyone in this Chamber has. Some of us have gotten those phone calls that the people in New York are getting from cell phones and/or from a police officer and/or from a morgue. We know there is not a darn thing we can do now for those people except--it is strange the way human nature works, and I know the Presiding Officer knows this--except it is amazing how those people in that circumstance draw strength from the knowledge that other people understand their pain, that other people empathize with them, that other people care about what they are going through. It amazes me that you can draw strength from that. I think what we are doing and the Nation is doing is the right thing. Most important, what we did today should be noted is not likely to occur in any other country in the world, and that is, that we just a few moments ago operated under the rule of law. In all our anger, all our frustration, all our feelings, very bluntly, of hatred that exists now for those who perpetrated the act against us, we did not pell-mell just say: Go do anything, anytime, anyplace, Mr. President; you have to just go. We operated as our Founders, who were not naive people, intended us to operate. We operated under the rule of law.”