Political Quotes

“last week we had a debate on the floor of the Senate about three different measures. The frustration was that at the end of the week, nothing happened. Now a lot of people who watch C-SPAN and observe the Senate in session wonder if anything ever happens. It seems as though there are a lot of gaps in activity here--so-called quorum calls--that seem to go on and on and on, and then you switch to another channel. Of course, if you are a Member of the Senate, there is a frustration about this if you came here and believed part of your job is to try to solve problems facing this country. Early in the week, we tried to start a debate on the policy on the war in Iraq. It was an important debate. It is one we have tried to initiate many times over. Under the way the Senate rules are written, the minority party--the Republican Party--can "filibuster" is what they call it around here, which means stretch out the debate until there is no end in sight, and then you file what is called a cloture motion to close down the debate to get to a vote, but you need 60 votes to close down the debate. So these cloture motions to stop filibusters are brought to the floor, and if you don't have 60 Senators who will say close down the debate and get to a vote, you have to move to something else. The filibuster worked.…”