Political Quotes

“To my great friend, I don't deserve this honor that he has recommended here of naming the bill. I'm just an ordinary American, but I get to serve with lots of extraordinary Americans, and the gentleman from Missouri is one of those extraordinary Americans. He talked about the jointness that he's trying to bring over from his great work on the Goldwater-Nichols bill, of bringing our services together to act jointly, and extend that to the other agencies which are so crucial in this operation in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to bring them in also in a way that they act as a member of the team led, most of the time, by the Department of Defense, but nonetheless, one that requires cohesion and jointness and a culture of working together as a team. I want to commend the gentleman for the fact that he has been the corporate historian, if you will, for the House of Representatives and for the Armed Services Committee, who often brings us back in debate or in hearings to events that transpired in conflicts 100 years ago sometimes, or World War II or Korea or Vietnam, and reminds us that we shouldn't have to learn the lesson a second time. So I want to give my great thanks to this great American, Ike Skelton, and to all of the members of the great Armed Services Committee and the chairmen and ranking members of the subcommittees who put together such a great bill.”