Political Quotes

“Mr. President, all Democrats and Republicans, pay close attention. I have been here for 20 years, and I have seen a lot of shutdowns-- about five of them. I want to talk about what they have produced. The first one with Bill Clinton produced Monica Lewinsky. That is how they got into all the trouble--because she was an intern at the White House. Idle hands are never good. For us, Newt Gingrich lost his job in the same shutdown. He lost his job because he lost six votes in the House and couldn't get reelected as Speaker. I had to replace him. I am kind of glad that happened, but it is still not a good reason to have a shutdown. A few years later, great Senators--John McCain being one of them and Ted Kennedy being another--worked their fingers to the bone and came up with a great immigration bill that I was a part of in my first term in the Senate. We got castigated and ruined because, all of a sudden, ``amnesty'' became a four-letter word, and political consultants found it to be kind of an easy way to run against people in the party. For 15 years, we have been beating each other over something that ought to be easy to do, which is to change for the better. A lot of people think Congress's job is for us to come to Washington and change things for the better. When it comes to immigration, all we ever change is the subject. We never end the debate, and we never pass a result. Oftentimes, we call each other names for the wrong reason.…”