Paul Coverdell: “we are hours away from the end of the fiscal year. There are leadership meetings occurring everywhere. I have become…”

“we are hours away from the end of the fiscal year. There are leadership meetings occurring everywhere. I have become convinced that the other side has concluded it is to their political advantage to try to re-create a meltdown here. We have learned from reading in the paper that the now famous Dick Morris, political consultant to the White House, spent 5 months planning the last shutdown, and we see the exact same characteristics as we come to trying to bring the year to a logical and bipartisan closure. Let us remember that, unlike a year ago, we have 60,000 troops in harm's way right now in Iraq and Bosnia. We have just watched a hurricane sweep across our eastern shores, and we have families desperately trying to dig out. We are 6 weeks from an election, and we ought to get the electioneering out of the Halls of Congress, come to closure here, lower the anxiety level for all those families involved, keep the Federal Government on course and move the campaigning to the elections.”