Political Quotes

“Well, I hope, as I reclaim, that what we see tomorrow is more than a dog and pony show. I hope it's not just a show that's designed to resolve the two things that seem to be giving Democrats and the President heartburn, which are the very legitimate point that they have shut Republicans out of the process and the very legitimate point that the President has promised that negotiations will take place on C-SPAN. That seems to be what is going to be presented tomorrow. But I'm going to say again, the requirement of preconditions that the President wants to negotiate from his position--and by the way, he doesn't have a bill yet that I know of. He just has platitudes and bullet points that are out there. But to start with his platitudes and bullet points--and maybe we'll be guessing at the amorphous combination of the Senate and the House version of this, that all needs to go off of the table, and this threat of reconciliation, the nuclear option needs to be renounced and rejected by the President of the United States. I would be just as happy if he would just read his 2005 statement verbatim tomorrow. He should start out the meeting and say, Well, all in good faith, I want to talk about health care with you on C-SPAN. I know I made a campaign oath. It probably wasn't the best promise, but it was good political leverage and good theater at the time, so I'm going to try to follow through on that so that I can resolve some of the criticism.”