Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I find myself agreeing with the Senator from South Carolina. I find myself agreeing--I am glad my colleague Senator Wyden also agrees. I raise this point, and I raise it for a point of discussion and consideration, not to challenge the purpose of the Senator from South Carolina. It seems to me that if we all agree the Wyden-Grassley amendment is a good approach and at least Senator Wyden and I and Senator McCaskill and Senator Coburn and Senator DeMint believe the McCaskill-Coburn measure is a good measure, why would you want to hold up the Grassley- Wyden amendment? Is there a feeling that maybe the McCaskill-Coburn measure cannot rise and fall on its own? Then I think you might leave the impression that there is some subterfuge to see that the Wyden- Grassley bill does not get adopted. Since there is a consensus on all these points, I think we ought to be able to move forward in a separate way and not use one good idea to leverage another good idea because if they are both good ideas, they can stand on their own. In the process, we do not have to then raise any questions about the legitimacy of the second idea, which would be the McCaskill-Coburn idea on reading legislation and making sure we have a score and making sure it is brought up in an environment where there is not secrecy. Again, what I said about secrecy in this body, it should only affect national security and people's personal privacy. Everything else ought to be the public's business.…”