Political Quotes

“I spent close to half an hour around lunchtime today with a number of governors. There were some 30, 40 governors gathered in one of the Senate office buildings not far from where we are standing today. They were not governors in their thirties, forties, fifties, or sixties; they were, for the most part, teenagers, and these governors are about to become seniors in high school. They are part of the YMCA Youth in Government. They are here from all over the country. It was great to be with them and see young leaders coming up through the ranks and hoping to push old guys like us out of the way and take our places, whether it is New Jersey, Florida, Georgia, or Delaware. One of the issues we talked about was how difficult it is to get things done around here anymore. If you read the Constitution and you read the rules of the Senate, there is the opportunity for one person in the Senate to slow things down quite a bit, for a handful of people to really bollix things up and bring business to a halt. I have never seen a time when we have had so many filibusters in the Senate. This is my eighth year, about as long as the Presiding Officer. So far in this Congress, we are up to 75 filibusters. The issue we were dealing with yesterday was whether we were going to bring up a bill to fund the development of renewable fuels, such as solar, wind, and geothermal, and pay for that by rescinding some of the tax cuts oil and gas companies enjoy.”