Political Quotes

“Mr. President, last week, the highlight of the Senate was two Republican filibusters. Those are efforts by the Republicans to demand 60 votes for the Senate to take action. It used to be rare. In fact, it was so rare that Jimmy Stewart made a movie about it: ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'' My colleagues may remember it. It wasn't this Chamber, but it looked a lot like it, and Jimmy Stewart was at a desk in the back row because he was a freshman Senator and he literally spoke until he dropped, physically, but he won the argument, won the day--a great triumph in Washington. He used the filibuster effectively to stop what he thought was a greedy move, a selfish move by his colleagues. That is the movies. What is real life? Real life is when a Republican Senator says: I declare a filibuster and I will see you later; I am going out to dinner. That is how it works around here. If we had a few more Jimmy Stewart moments on the floor, where those who are pushing for a filibuster--an exceptional, extraordinary 60-vote margin--had to actually stay on the floor and argue their point, I think they would go away. That is because 9 times out of 10, 19 out of 20, maybe even more, it turns out there is no solid basis for what they are doing. What they did last week with their filibusters was to stop a woman from being appointed to the circuit court in the District of Columbia. Her name is Caitlin Halligan. She is from New York.…”