Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Arizona as well. I think we have a rare moment of peacemaking and harmony in the Senate. It may not last for long, so I want to speak while we have that moment and say for the Record that I don't dispute any of the statements made by the Senator from Arizona nor do I question his right to do so, including his responsibility to raise questions about spending. We are at a time when we are cutting spending right and left--even at the Department of Defense. I do want to put on record the following: This bill, which we are considering as it relates to the Department of Defense in its entirety, is the bill that was passed by the House Republican majority. This is not a bill which was written on this side of the Rotunda. We have received it. That doesn't mean we should not ask questions about what the House did, but I don't want to be assigned the blame or asked to take responsibility for provisions which I did not author. We took the House version and brought it to the floor in an effort to get this moving in an expedited manner. I know some of the questions the Senator from Arizona has raised are not new. There was a longstanding debate here in the Senate about whether to expand the notion of minority contracting to include Native Alaskans and Native Hawaiians.…”