Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I have served in the House and Senate for a number of years. One of the issues that has always been of interest to me is tobacco. I lost my father to lung cancer when I was 14 years old. He was 53. Two packs of Camels a day, and he died of lung cancer. I have thought about that a lot throughout my life. When I was elected to the House of Representatives, I decided to start asking a few questions about tobacco and government subsidies and government policies. It was not the most popular position I ever took within the House of Representatives. There was generally a rule--or at least a custom--of never raising the issue. I did. It resulted in a decision by the House of Representatives that surprised almost everyone. I introduced an amendment to ban smoking on airplanes. It was opposed by not only my own party leadership but the leadership of the Republican Party. Yet we prevailed. It turned out that the Members of the House of Representatives represented one of the largest frequent flier clubs in America, and they were sick and tired of secondhand smoke in airplanes. I called on Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey to be my ally on this side of the Rotunda, and he was successful in passing the legislation with me, which was signed into law. People started asking obvious questions about secondhand smoke: If it is dangerous in an airplane, why is it not dangerous on the train, the bus, at a hospital, in an office building, in a restaurant?…”