Political Quotes

“over the last several days of debate in this Chamber we have heard those who favored the appointment of a special counsel say that time is of the essence, and that we should move forward and ask the Attorney General to make this appointment as quickly as possible. In fact, they were so determined to pass this resolution as a bon voyage gift to the President as he heads off to the Helsinki summit that we had to vote today. Today, before the President left, we had to make certain that this gesture was made. Many of us felt this was unnecessary and ill-timed and, frankly, unprecedented, that this type of embarrassment would be directed at the President as he left our shores to head off for a critical summit with the only other superpower with nuclear weapons in the world. And yet those who prevailed on the majority side were convinced that time was of the essence: let us move forward and do it now. Catching that spirit, I come before the Senate today with the suggestion that we not stop with this resolution but go even further and plumb the depths of the real problem that we are examining here. It goes beyond the 1996 Presidential campaign. It goes beyond the Democratic Party. What we are focusing on is our very campaign finance system itself as used by Presidential candidates, congressional candidates, Democrats and, yes, Republicans.”