Political Quotes

“First of all, let me say, I want to fully associate myself with the remarks of my colleague from New Hampshire. She said it about as well as it can be said, but I am going to underscore it and go back. As she said, in 2012, she and I were the appointed representatives of the United States to look at and monitor the elections in Georgia, and, I have to tell you, it was an interesting process to do that. We looked and watched the election. From our point of view, it was a straight-up election. It was well done, well executed. And, at the end of the day, the incumbent, President Saakashvili lost; Mr. Ivanishvili's Dream party won. We had the interesting experience, the next morning, going to see both camps, and one of the things that gave me great hope is it was very much like an American election. Both camps were still in campaign mode when we talked to them, but, as Senator Shaheen indicated, we had very candid discussions with both sides. Frankly, before we left the region--I think we went to Turkey after that. But before we left the region, they had made agreements that they were going to talk about a peaceful transition. That was a really, really good sign. I have to tell you, we left there really quite optimistic that things were headed in the right direction--that here they had an election that was a spirited election, but it came out the way the people of Georgia wanted it to come out and that things would go forward.…”