Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I come to the floor to comment on an extraordinary about-face that we have seen from many of my colleagues across the aisle with respect to the filibuster. When I say ``across the aisle,'' I mean an about-face on the part of Democrats who see the filibuster differently now than they did over the last 4 or 5 years. But now, like Paul on the road to Damascus, they have seen the light and have now embraced the filibuster wholeheartedly, and like many converts, they are very active in their faith. Naturally, this has caused frustration for many Americans who wonder why we cannot address the pressing issues we were elected to address, and there are a lot of frustrated Members of the Senate as well. I am one of those frustrated Members. When we have an opportunity for the Senate to function as James Madison said it should function, I don't understand why we cannot have it function that way. Not surprisingly, the recent series of filibusters on legislation of enormous consequences for our Nation has resulted in new calls for changes to the Senate rules. First, I would like to take stock of where we are right now. It was just last year that the previous majority leader was abusing the cloture motion to shut down debate and amendments on virtually every single bill, even before the debate had begun, all while blocking any amendments.…”