Michael Castle: “I do not know if one party is ever going to have 290 Members or not, I sort of doubt it, at least in the time most of us…”

“I do not know if one party is ever going to have 290 Members or not, I sort of doubt it, at least in the time most of us are around here, and you need both parties in order do this. I learned with the coin that I did, which was Benjamin Franklin. I cannot tell you, and hardly anyone can tell you, whether Benjamin Franklin was or would have been a Republican or a Democrat in his history. We do not know the politics of people like George Washington, and certainly the people who have been from other countries, a number of individuals who received medals here in the Congress of the United States. In the history of the gold medals, as I believe the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley) pointed out, it has been as much Democrats, even more so than Republicans. Even on the business of the commemorative coins, a number of the sponsors in the Senate have been Democrats as well. I just have never noticed a lot of politics in this, I guess is my point.”