Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I have not listened to every speech on the Senate floor in the last week or so where there has been a lot of talk about secret holds and everything. But since I have been in the Senate working with Senator Wyden in a bipartisan way over the course of maybe a decade, not to do away with holds but to have a transparency of holds, and seeing those things compromised, and then particularly to see exception taken to what has happened when this side of the aisle has put on holds, and then considering when Senator Wyden and I did try to do something, that was gutted by people on the other side of the aisle. So I would appreciate it if Democratic Members of the Senate would listen while I explore some of the history so that they know this bipartisan effort, that if it had been done the way Senator Wyden and I did it before it was gutted, we would not have a lot of problems today that we have. So I wanted to go into my remarks, but I preface it with what I just said. There has been a lot of talk recently on the Senate floor about secret holds. For a practice with so much bipartisan guilt to go around, it is interesting that the discussion has taken on a partisan tone. Republicans are being accused of being particularly egregious offenders when it comes to circumventing disclosure requirements.…”