Political Quotes

“Now, those of you who know me know that I don't give long speeches. I do recall when Newt Gingrich became Speaker and he was asked to give his acceptance speech, he spoke for an hour. That was very unusual. Most new Speakers just say: ``Thank you, and I look forward to working with you.'' You know, there is a time and a place for everything, and in my case, things have all come together, I believe, at the right time for me personally and for this organization. I retired from my law firm about 1\1/2\ years ago. While I still have some volunteer activities, I intend to devote a great deal of my personal time to this organization. I particularly enjoy working with the staff. And Cliff has already recognized Pete and Sabine who just do an extraordinary job. Also, many of the other members of the staff are here today. We have a cross section of younger people and more mature people who are working with us, and I could not be happier than the staff that I will have the opportunity to lead in the next 2 years. I want to thank you for entrusting this job to me. You will be seeing me around, and I will play the same role that Cliff did. I will be making suggestions to Pete and to the staff from time to time. I think they will listen carefully, and I expect that they will follow my suggestions from time to time. Thank you very much for the honor you have given me.”