Political Quotes

“I have refrained from speaking on this bill up until now because, quite frankly, my colleague, our leader, Senator Durbin, and our ranking Member of the Committee on the Budget and others have spoken with eloquence and precision, I believe, about this point of order. I have a number of amendments if this point of order fails. But before the time closes on this vote, I did want to ask the indulgence of my colleagues to make a few very brief points. No. 1, this is a Herculean attempt by one of my best friends in the Senate--one of my best friends, period, Senator Specter--to try to deal with the real problem. The real problem is that there are a lot of people out there suffering from the effects of asbestos. There are not a lot of companies out there with the money to pay all of these claims. There is the concern that some of the very companies we have to go to, to recover from, may very well declare bankruptcy. So I understand the motivation. It is a decent, honorable motivation. But the bottom line is, what we are asking an awful lot of people to do is to give up a right in tort that has existed in common law for hundreds and hundreds of years prior to our Nation's history but throughout our Nation's history. The deal was it would be in return for a guarantee. They would take less, they would get in line, people who had claims they could pursue now would not be able to pursue them immediately until the medical effects occurred.…”