Political Quotes

“It is true we did go see the President. The Senator from Indiana and I have a slightly different take on what we told the President. My view is the President has incredible leverage with the Republican House. And my point to the President was: Mr. President, what we had in the Biden-Lugar bill and, prior to that, the bill of the leader, Senator Kerry, and Senator Feingold, who have been the real leaders on this issue, you liked all of it; you said it was okay, and so, Mr. President, I do not know why you cannot pick up the phone, call Mr. DeLay and say, I, the most popular Republican in the Nation, want this. He said he cannot do that, he will not be able to get a bill. He also said he needs this bill. Why do we need this before the G-8? He says he needs this before the G-8 to demonstrate to the G-8 we are doing something and we expect them to do more. I take the President at his word that that is why he wants it, but the reason why the Durbin amendment is so important is everybody knows the House does not really care about this bill. The House bill says up to a billion dollars--up to, meaning zero to a billion. My argument to the President is, if we have $500 million at the front end, everybody in the G-8 will believe it and he will really have leverage. The problem I have is, I do not understand why the President of the United States is unwilling to exercise his leverage on the House leadership. So I really think we are helping him in spite of what he wants.”