Political Quotes

“Good afternoon, Mr. President. It is good to see the Presiding Officer and to hear my colleague Senator Perdue, as he prepares to probably head for home for the next several weeks. A number of our Senators are heading for their home States this afternoon and tomorrow to begin what is traditionally called the August recess. I am fortunate to live in Delaware, and I can go home every night. Some people see it as a blessing, others as a curse. I see it as a blessing to go home and stay a while. I am looking forward to that. We have three Senate office buildings here on Capitol Hill that Senators share and where they have their office space. The oldest is Russell. The next oldest is Dirksen. The newest is a building they call the Hart Senate Office Building. For 16 or 17 years, my staff and I have been in the Hart Building--and by choice. Every 2 years we can change offices, but we always want to stay in the same office, which is sort of unusual when you have been here for 16 or 17 years. Sometimes a lot of people say the names Russell or Dirksen or Hart. Russell and Dirksen are pretty famous folks, even now. Hart is less well known. I will not take a lot of time to give a deep history of who Philip Hart was, but he was a Senator from Michigan and he was a Democrat. His time here preceded my time. I was elected State treasurer for Delaware in 1976, a Congressman in 1982, and Governor in 1992. Then, I came to the Senate in 2001.…”