Johnny Isakson: “I rise for just a moment to do two things. First of all, I spent 33 years selling houses. I have dealt with honest…”

“I rise for just a moment to do two things. First of all, I spent 33 years selling houses. I have dealt with honest brokers, and I have dealt with brokers who were hard to deal with and whom I would never categorize as honest. Senator Coburn from Oklahoma is the most honest broker I have ever dealt with in politics or in selling houses. I wish to acknowledge for just a second exactly what he said about the process, his support for the AGOA provisions but his concern about the pay-for, but the fact that he never tried to scuttle this piece of legislation, he only tried to get his day in court. I respect that, and I want him to know that. If we all acted a little bit more like that, we would have a lot more debate on the floor and a lot fewer problems in terms of running our country. As far as AGOA, I want to say this. As the chairman and ranking member, as Senator Coons and I are, of the African Affairs Subcommittee, we travel to that continent quite a bit. One of my trips was to the Sudan, to Darfur, and to the South Sudan, when the comprehensive peace agreement was being negotiated. As this body knows, the South Sudan had their revolution peacefully. South Sudan became the newest country on the face of this Earth, and South Sudan will become, if AGOA passes today, one of the parties to this agreement, which is critical to the developing economy of the South Sudan as an independent nation.…”