Political Quotes

“I remember when I ran for Congress 4\1/2\ years ago, I had this idea that because I had really good ideas and had the backing of 700,000 folks back home in the district who also had really good ideas that we were going to be able to come up here and share our good ideas; 435 of my colleagues were going to recognize the wisdom that I brought from the great State of Georgia, and we were just going to be able to make those things happen. It has been harder than I had anticipated, Mr. Speaker; I will confess that to you. It has been harder than I had anticipated. It turns out there are some folks in other parts of the country who have some different ideas. My friend from Colorado is absolutely right. He offered two amendments yesterday, and he only got one of them made in order. That has happened to me, too. That has happened to me, too. We have got to talk about what we are going to define as success in this place. Are we going to define getting half of everything you want as failure, or are we going to define getting half of everything you want as a huge step in the right direction that we can celebrate together? There are not that many bills in this institution, Mr. Speaker, that are worked through in the bipartisan, collaborative way that this one has happened. It is not easy. It is tremendously difficult-- tremendously difficult. Why?…”