Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I have listened closely in this debate because it literally affects my career, my life, and the lives of all the Members of the Senate. It is worth a minute or two to understand what we are talking about in the context of history. It was President Woodrow Wilson who said to the Congress: We want to arm the Merchant Marine of the United States, to put guns on Merchant Marine ships, before we were engaged in World War I, to protect those ships from being destroyed or sunk by the warring parties in World War I. He sent that request to Congress, and it was stopped by one Senator. One Senator in those days could stand up and say: I object. End of story. But President Wilson said: That is an outrage, that one Senator can say that and stop even the consideration of a measure to protect American lives and our Merchant Marines. And he created this firestorm of public opinion. So they created a Senate rule called the cloture rule, and the cloture rule said that if two-thirds of the Senators voted in disagreement with that objector, then the Senate would go to the measure. So what was originally an objection by one Senator, characterized as a filibuster, could be cut off and the Senate could resume its activity and its business by a two-thirds vote. That was passed by the Senate in 1917, almost 100 years ago. Over the span of time since, there have been some changes in that.…”