Political Quotes

“I wish to follow up the statement by our minority leader, Harry Reid. It is time to get down to business. We will finish this afternoon, after the funeral of Chief Justice Rehnquist. I hope the Senate will return immediately, come right back to the Senate and not waste any time. Let's start moving on important legislation. The Department of Defense authorization bill was pulled from the calendar over 6 weeks ago by the Republican leadership so they could bring a bill sponsored by the gun lobby on the immunity of gun dealers from being sued in a court of law for wrongdoing. It was hard to believe we would take away from consideration a bill that dealt with our troops and our veterans, that tried helping, in the right way, the war in Iraq. We took that off the calendar so we could help a special interest group. Let's get back on the calendar to the Department of Defense authorization bill. That is something we can start this afternoon, and we should. Let's get it done this week, if we do nothing else, to make certain we are responsive to a very real concern we all share. We have lost 1,886 American soldiers, as of today, in Iraq. Over 14,000 have suffered serious injuries. We need to get back on that bill, and then as soon as we finish that, focus on Hurricane Katrina. All are stunned to see on the television each night, and to read in the newspapers, the accounts of the suffering that continues.…”