Political Quotes

“I returned to my district in Springfield, IL this weekend as I do virtually every weekend, and it was interesting that some of my friends when I came across them at a party on Saturday night said, ``What in the world was going on in the House of Representatives last week? We tuned into the news and we saw grown men and women shouting, red in the face, emotional. What was it all about?'' What it was all about was a 1-minute speech, like those given every day, by the gentlewoman from Florida, Carrie Meek, in which she raised the question of the Speaker's book contract. It led to a ruling by the Chair concerning which words were appropriate to be spoken on the floor and a reaction from my Democratic side of the aisle where there was a feeling that perhaps this ruling, which relied on a precedent almost a century old, had perhaps gone too far. People in the ordinary course of life with their families may find it hard to imagine why grown men and women would get so exercised and so emotional over something which appears as inconsequential as what words can be spoken on the floor of this House. But frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I think when we take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution, including therein our freedom of speech, that this House probably as much if not more than any other place in the United States should be the situs where free speech is respected.”